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DWIGHT L. MOODY. 



By the courtesy of the American Tract Society, we present the readers of Great 
Joy with the above portrait, which is recognized as the best likeness of Mr. Moody 
extant. 



GREAT JOY. 



COMPRISING 



SERMONS 

AND 

PRAYER-MEETING TALKS. 

DELIVERED AT THE CHICAGO TABERNACLE. 



D. L. MOODY, 

From the Stenographic Reports, taken, verbatim, for 
The Chicago Inter-Ocean. 



CAREFULLY REVISED AND CORRECTED. 



k Behold, I bring you good Tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 1 * 

— Luke ii.-io. 




NEW YORK : 
E. B. TREAT, 805 BROADWAY. 

PALMER, AUGIR & CO., CHICAGO; EBEN SHUTE, BOSTON; 

W. S. FORSHEE & CO., CINCINNATI. 

ANCHOR PUBLISHING CO., ST. LOUIS. 

1877. 






NOTICE. 



When Mr. Moody began his series of meetings at the 
Tabernacle, The Inter-Ocean undertook to give accurate 
phonographic reports of his Sermons. The undertaking 
was a success, and from many admiring friends of Mr. 
Moody, we have been requested to have the Sermons re- 
produced in book form. In response to such requests, 
this Volume is issued. The Sermons have been carefully 
revised and corrected with the reporter's notes. Omissions 
made in the daily reports, for want of time or space, have 
been made good, and some entire Sermons reported but 
crowded out of the paper, will be found in these pages. 
On the whole, it is believed to be the largest and most 
correct publication of Mr. Moody's Sermons that has 
been offered to the Public. 

The Inter-Ocean. 
Chicago, Dec. 19th, 1876. 



[Copyright by E. B. Treat] 

1876. 

The Ijbe ^ 

OF Cov 



W A 



CONTENTS. 



PAGB. 

Hindrances . 13 

The Reward of the Faithful ........ 21 

Charity 33 

The Good Samaritan 44 

" His own Brother " 53 

Where art Thou ? 60 

Heaven, I * » 73 

Heaven, II * . . . . 83 

The Precious Blood, 1 94 

The Precious Blood, II. ........ 107 

Excuses, 1 118 

Excuses, II. . . . 124 

The Prophet Daniel, I. 134 

The Prophet Daniel, II. . 140 

The Prophet Daniel, II L 149 

To the Afflicted 157 

Spiritual Blindness . 168 

Repentance 179 

What Christ is to us . . , 190 

Christ the Good Shepherd 202 

What shall I do to be saved? 205 

Christ's Command ......... 208 

The Conversion of Saul 215 

Naaman 225 

" How to Study the Bible " . 234" 

" How to Study the Bible," II 249 

Trust 254 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAOB. 

Sudden Conversion . . 257 

Behold! .*...' 265 

How to Conduct Inquiry Meetings 277^ 

The Penitent Thief 288 

Address to Parents 297 

Address to Young Men 308 

Praise 319 

Weighed in the Balance 329 

The " I Wills " of Christ 340 

Mission of Christ 352 

The Life of Lot . .361 

Their Rock is not as our Rock ....... 370 

The Pharisee and the Publican 384 

Address to Business Men ... . . . . . . 395 

The Life and Character of Jacob . . . . . . . 407 

Address to Parents, II. 411 

The Life of Peter 425 

Address to Young Men, II. 429 

The Sacrifice of Christ 445 

Sinners Called to Repentance ....... 461 

Come 79 

Work 493 

Prayer Meeting Talks 507 

Mr. Moody's First Public Prayer in the Chicago Tabernacle . 507 

The Right Spirit 508 

Prayer 409 

Heart Searching 512 

Getting Ready 517 

Give God the Glory 521 

The Disciples' Prayer 524 

Unanimity 526 




IRA D. SANKEY. 



By the courtesy of the American Tract Society, we present the readers of Great 
Joy with the above portrait, which is recognized as the best likeness of Mr. Sankey 
extant. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

The name most prominently associated with Mr. 
Moody's in evangelistic work, is that of Ira David 
Sankey. 

He is the acknowledged Asaph, the sweet Singer, 
"Set over the service of Song in the house of Israel." 

Ira D. Sankey was born in Edenburgh, Lawrence 
County, Pennsylvania, August 28th, 1840. 

His parents were highly esteemed in the commu- 
nity for their social qualities and noble traits of char- 
acter. His father was a man of social and political 
prominence, and was often honored with offices of 
political trust and responsibility. Young Ira was 
noted for his vivacious and sprightly spirit, and was a 
universal favorite with his young companions. His 
pleasant, winning ways and his playful humor, com- 
bined with a high sense of honor and manly self- 
reliance, attracted others to him and enabled him to 
wield a strong influence over them. His early years 
at school were not idled away, but spent in close and 
patient application to study. Inspired by a purpose 
to succeed he became an excellent student, and soon 
acquired the elements of a practical and useful educa- 
tion. He was converted, and joined the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, in early life. Here he found an 



I0 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

excellent opportunity for the employment of his mu- 
sical powers, as no Church is more devoted to sacred 
Song and more appreciative of its beauty and power. 
He at once entered the Sunday School, and teachers 
and scholars alike, were charmed by the sweet strains 
of his captivating song. 

He sang with so much naturalness, fervor and 
sweetness, that all hearts seemed to thrill with a new 
inspiration and felt that a brighter era had dawned 
upon the school. During our civil war, he was in the 
army for a brief period, and on many occasions, 
inspired the desponding and cheered the sorrowing 
and dying soldier, with the soft, sweet strains of some 
new song, or of some precious melody of other days* 
From 1862 to 1871, Mr. Sankey was connected with 
the internal revenue service, and was noted for his 
careful attention to his duties, and enjoyed the entire 
confidence of his superior officers and also of the 
people. 

Mr. Sankey' s first interview with Mr. Moody oc- 
curred at the International Convention of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, at Indianapolis, in June, 
1870. Mr. Moody had heard the sweet singer's voice 
in the convention, and, impressed with its marvellous 
power, at once resolved to enlist it in his great work. 
After a formal introduction, Mr. Moody said to him : 
" I want you." " What for ? " said Mr. Sankey. " To 
help me in my work," was the reply. " But I cannot 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. zz 

leave my business," was the response. " You must," 
said Mr. Moody. " You must give up your business, 
and come with me. I have been looking for you these 
eight years." 

Thus suddenly was this world-renowned Singer 
called to join the most efficient evangelist of modern 
times. The history of his work with Mr. Moody in 
Europe, in Brooklyn, in Philadelphia, in New York 
and Chicago, is too recent to need extended notice in 
this brief sketch. Suffice it to say, the almost uni- 
versal conviction is that Mr. Sankey is as necessary 
to the great evangelistic work as Mr. Moody himself. 

Both are divinely accredited heralds of the Cross — 
one heralding in simple, lucid language the Gospel of 
Great Joy, and the other enunciating the Glad 
Tidings in sweet, triumphant strains of Christian 
Song. 



GREAT JOY. 



HINDRANCES. 

I want to call your attention for a few minutes this 
morning to a verse you have heard read in the nth chap- 
ter of the Gospel according to John — a part of the 39th 
verse: "Jesus said, take ye away the stone." Now I have 
not any doubt but that nearly all this congregation are look- 
ing for a blessing in Chicago. I've no doubt that hundreds 
of you are expecting a great work here. If you are not so 
expecting you ought to be ; and if God does not do a great 
and mighty work here it will not be His fault, but it will 
be our own. I find a class of people who say, Well, we 
must wait until God works, and when God is ready we 
will see a great work. Now, if I read my Bible and under- 
stand Scripture, God is always ready. We talk about the 
" set time " for God to favor us. The set time is when 
you and I get ready to let God work for us, just when we 
choose to roll away the stones that- prevent His coming to 
our souls. Some one must take away these stones, some 
one must roll them off, so the Lord, Redeemer, and Saviour 
can get at us. There is no doubt but that He himself 
could send down legions of angels to clear away every 
single stone. If even the word of His mouth should go 
out, every stone-like obstacle in His path would suddenly 
disappear, just as Satan did from His presence in the wil- 



I4 GREAT JOY. 

derness. But God does not work in that way. He works 
through others. He did not Himself roll away the stone 
from Lazarus' grave ; He said to His disciples surround- 
ing Him, and to His disciples in all times, " Take ye away 
the stone." Now I find a great many men and a great 
many wives, and- a great many Christians, too, who ask 
God to roll away the stone, and because He does not 
answer their prayer they throw the blame on God. Why, 
the blame is not His ; it is theirs. God always works in 
partnership. When He is asked to do a thing He can 
only do it when He first sees an active disposition in the 
asker to help to get the blessing. This failure to second 
God's work for us comes from unbelief. Such a half- 
hearted man does not believe God will grant his prayer, 
and so fails to carry out his own part of the programme. 
The mother that prays for the reclaiming of a drunken son 
or a dissolute husband must faithfully do her part to this 
end, and then must have full belief that God will do the 
rest. There is something for us all to, do for our fellow- 
creatures, and it is the stone of unbelief that blocks up the 
way if we do not do it. And it is just this great stone that 
must first be rolled out of the way in this city. Let us 
believe that God can do a great work here, and that practi- 
cal belief will make us work as we ought to. It will be a 
hard work, but with this lever of faith it can be done, and 
in short order. There must be honest work, a lifting up of 
one's self first as far as may be, and then a leaving of the 
rest to God, whose word will completely roll the stone 
away and raise the dead. And what a need there is for 
this resurrection in all our souls. How dead our sense of 
sin ! How forgetful that iniquity cannot live in our heart 
and word and act ! How careless and indifferent even, to 
have things anywise different than they are ! Is the fault 
God's ? No, the only trouble is with ourselves ; we will 
not ask Him that He will help us to do better things. We 



HINDRANCES. I 5 

do not want to do them. How lukewarm the love of God 
in our hearts, and how selfish and cold in consequence, 
our thoughts towards our neighbor ! It is a wonder to me 
how low our standard can fly, and yet we can profess to be 
Christians. Do we not need to cry that God will revive 
us? Yes, it is we ourselves that must first be quickened. 
Our own hearts — those of us who profess to be Christians 
— must feel anew the joys of sins forgiven, and a re-kind- 
ling of the early fires of faith and holy living. Only thus 
can good influences be made effectual on those outside. I 
have heard many complain of the answer of prayer being 
withheld, when the secret lay just here. A woman, though 
a professing Christian, need not pray for her husband's 
conversion if she be governed by an evil temper. She 
need not talk even to God about her husband until she 
gets command of her railing tongue and wicked looks. If 
you are not Christ-like in your behavior, you need not ex- 
pect to be taken for an example by your godless neighbor. 
He will not imitate you, even if he does not despise you 
for your hollow professions. I recall an illustration used 
by my dear friend Morehouse when he was in this city. 
The Apostle Paul stood with the gathering crowd about the 
fire, warming himself after the shipwreck, when, as they 
piled the wood on the fire, a viper sprang from the flame 
and fastened itself on his hand. Immediately the gaping 
crowd cried out that he was a reprobate, whom, though he 
had escaped the waves, vengeance would not let live. But 
presently Paul shook the viper from his hand into the fire, 
when they, seeing he did not die, changed their opinion 
entirely, and Paul preached to them the saving word of 
life. The apostle shook off the viper, and the confidence 
of men flowed out to him. Let us Christians all imitate 
this grand example ; let us shake off, with God's help, the 
vipers of evil temper, and all the evil things that make our 
Christianity a nullity, and too often a reproach in the eyes 



x 6 GREAT JOY. 

of those we would call to a like name and inheritance with 
ourselves. And, as a community as well, we must shake 
off the venomous beast, whose poison not only repels 
others, but kills and enfeebles ourselves. 

The vipers of London are different from those of New 
York; and, again, our own are unlike either of these. 
Covetousness, the inordinate greed for gain, has fastened 
on the hand of Chicago, along with many another Western 
city, and the sting will be worse and worse unless a 
remedy is found for us. We talk with an appetite much 
too keen about getting gain and the chances for money- 
making. And yet this very trait, confessedly an evil, is an 
argument to our hand. There is a cry in commercial circles, 
loud and prolonged, for a revival in business — all classes 
of business. In this country, during the past twenty years, 
I never heard any one crying out against it. But if you 
talk about getting a revival in God's business, there is a 
class of people who at once shake their heads. They do 
not know about it ; they are afraid it won't work. A 
strange inconsistency ; a thing is all right in their own 
concerns, but all wrong in God's. The two things are not 
different at all, for the purposes of this comparison. God's 
work, like man's work, may have stages of activity ; and 
the Christian, just as much as the merchant, should seek 
earnestly for a revival in trade. Oh, let us roll away this 
stone of unbelief and indifference, and we will soon hear 
a voice from the place of the stone crying, " Lazarus, come 
forth." Let us only cry as earnestly and loud for a revival 
as our business men have done and are now doing, and the 
powers and affections of our souls will spring up and bloom 
to eternal life. Our quickened souls and those of our 
friends will be made glad thereat, and rejoice together in 
time and eternity. Should no right time come in God's fields, 
when can the farmer have his harvest time ? How active 
the farmers are in getting hands to help them through the 



HINDRANCES. 1 7 

rush. The right time does come periodically in the king- 
dom of heaven upon earth — a ripening time, when God 
calls his reapers to put in. their sickles. 

Three stones I will especially refer to this morning, or 
mountains if you prefer — for that is what they are — to be 
rolled from our caves before the dead Lazarus, quickened 
to life, can come forth. A great stone to be rolled away is 
unbelief, already spoken of. If I ask the Christian man in 
Chicago, Do you believe God can revive this work? I do 
not want him to say : "I do not believe He can ; I have 
been here about fifteen years, and during all that time 
there has not been a successful attempt at reviving His 
work." Well, it may be so that the work has not got on 
well. What was the trouble ? Well, I believe it was simply 
because people did not believe the work could really be 
done. But surely there is no person in the town but knows 
that everything is possible with God. Let us take this 
stand, to believe that God is actually going to do some- 
thing. There is no drunkard who should despair, for I 
believe that God is going to save hundreds of them. He 
can and He will destroy his love of strong drink, root and 
branch, and I believe there is to be a cleansing thunder- 
storm in His atmosphere here before many days. 

When in Glasgow, a skeptic insisted that all my converts 
were women and old men verging on the grave. At the 
next meeting in that city. there were present in the hall 
thirty-three hundred men, and of these twenty-seven hun- 
dred were young men. The skeptic next insisted that not 
a wild or reckless or drunken man came under God's 
reviving influence. At the very next meeting a gambler, 
and a short time afterwards the most notorious drunkard 
in town, experienced saving grace. And so let it be here. 
We want to see thieves, gamblers, and harlots saved. Let 
us have faith, for according to our faith shall it be done to 
us; just as Martha saw Lazarus alive through trust in 

2 



jS, great joy. 

Jesus' words. If we believe, we are told that we may order 
mountains to be removed and they will be cast into the 
sea. O, may God strike down our unbelief to the resurrec- 
tion to life of even the vilest sinners in this city. 

The next terrible stone to be rolled away is prejudice. 
Oh, how came that in among the churches against revivals. 
How many men you hear say : " Well, I am prejudiced 
against revivals; I do not believe in them." They believe 
in revivals in everything else. They say : " Agitate politics 
and trade, and let us have a revival in everything else but 
religion." So, many whom I have addressed here on this 
subject have inveighed against revivals in religion, shaking 
their heads and saying no good can come out of revivals. 
Well, my dear friends, when Philip, the sage deacon, went 
to Nathaniel to tell him about Jesus, and Nathaniel object- 
ed, could any good come out of Nazareth, he just answered, 
come and see. So I answer you, come and see. Spend a 
week waiting on God, and see if the work is not to be a 
power of God to the saving of many. " Oh," but some one 
may say, " I cannot countenance these unhealthy excite- 
ments. I know far too much bad about them for that." 
My friend, I know far more of the possible evils you would 
shun, and know them to be sometimes real ones, but what 
of it ? Because some revivals turn out to be useless, or in 
some developments positively bad, must the system be 
thrown aside ? No. The Democrat does not desert his 
politics for some minor flaw about them ; and the Repub- 
lican does not either, if some of his standard-bearers have 
done corruptly. Professional and business men are not 
degraded by the shortcomings of individuals, and all through 
and through there is seen to be no limit in this principle. 
God's mighty engine in revivals is not to be thrown aside 
for even considerable defects. Under its operations time 
was when 3,000 men were added to the Church in one day. 
We cannot speak against these special meetings, finally, 



HINDRANCES. I9 

for they are planned in Scripture. The Bible is full of 
chronicles of their workings. They are developments of 
the Christian idea, no innovation whatever, and the best 
possible agencies for work for sinners, which is work for 
God. 

And then this miserable sectarian spirit that once held 
despotic hold on men. There was a time when its grasp 
was that of iron : but, blessed be God, the time is past, I 
remember fifteen years ago the Methodist insisted that he 
was a Methodist, although lending a hand to the revival 
then in progress ; the Congregationalist was nothing else, 
through and through, though, he, too, co-operated in the 
good work, and the Presbyterian and the Baptist, and all 
were first of all their denominational selves, though conde- 
scending for a few days to work in yoke in a common 
cause. Yet it was really and necessarily condescension ; 
and there was enough of it in those meetings to kill them, 
and it nearly did it. [Faint applause.] And this sectarian 
stone is a real stone, though nothing like the boulder 
it used to be. The rolling-away process must be pushed 
vigorously ; let us heave it away altogether out of sight. 
Let us have none of that spirit in this meeting. Talk not 
of this sect and that sect, this party and that party, 
but solely and exclusively of the great, comprehensive 
cause of Jesus Christ. When Christ came into the world, 
had he allied himself with the Sadducees, they would have 
warmly upheld Him ; if he had joined the Pharisees, they 
would not have let Him be crucified, but He kept clear of 
them, and just so we should do in this glorious work open- 
ing before us. ' In this ideal brotherhood there should be 
one faith, one mind, one spirit ; and in this city let us 
starve it out for a season, to actualize this glorious truth. 
You remember how in the Old Testament, Eldad and 
Medad took upon themselves priestly duties, and how 
excited for once in his life Joshua became at the irregular- 



2 o GREATJOY. 

ity, and ran and told the scandal to Moses ; but you also 
remember how Moses reproved his informant, who was 
then engaged in perhaps the only small business of his life, 
and told him to rebuke them not ; they prophesied well, 
however irregularly. It was just so with Christ; when 
word was carried by over-serviceable followers that men 
were casting out devils, who " were not of us," He rebuked, 
not those who were thus benefiting their kind, but the 
talebearers. Oh yes, let us sink this party feeling and 
contend for Christ only. Oh that God may so fill us with 
His love and the love of souls, that no thought of minor 
sectarian parties can come in ; that there may be no room 
for them in our atmosphere whatever ; and that the Spirit 
of God may give us one mind and one spirit here to glorify : 
His holy name. • Let us pray. 

Mr. Moody's first public prayer in the Chicago revival : 
see page ooo. 



THE REWARD OF THE FAITHFUL. 



I want to call your attention to the 4th chapter Gospel of 
St. John and part of the 36th verse : " And he that reapeth 
receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal." I want 
you to get the text into your hearts. We have a thousand 
texts to every sermon, but they slip over the hearts of men 
and women. If I can get this text into your hearts to-day, 
with the Spirit of God, these meetings will be the brightest 
and most glorious ever held in Chicago ; for it is the word 
oi the Lord, and His word is worth more than ten thousand 
sermons. " He that reapeth receiveth wages." I can 
speak from experience. I have been in the Lord's service 
for twenty-one years, and I want to testify that he is a good 
paymaster — that he pays promptly. Oh, I think I see 
faces before me light up at these words. You have been 
out in the harvest fields of the Lord, and you know this to 
be true. To go out and labor for Him is a thing to be 
proud of — to guide a poor, weary soul to the way of life, 
and turn his face towards the golden gates of Zion. The 
Lord's wages are better than silver and gold, because he 
says that the loyal soul shall receive a crown of glory. If 
the Mayor of Chicago gave out a proclamation stating that 
he had work for the men, women, and children of the city, 
and he would give them a dollar a day, people would say 
this was very good of the Mayor. This money, however, 
would fade away in a short time. But here is a proclama- 
tion coming directly from the throne of grace to every man, 
woman, and child in the wide world to gather into God's 
vineyard, where they will find treasures that will never fade, 
and these treasures will be crowns of everlasting life ; and 



22 GREAT JOY. 

the laborer will find treasures laid up in his Father's house, 
and when, after serving faithfully here, he will be greeted 
by friends assembled there. Work for tens of thousands 
of men, women, and children ! Think of it, and the reward. 
These little children, my friends, are apt to be overlooked ; 
but they must be led to Christ. Children have done a great 
deal in the vineyard. They have led parents to Jesus. It 
was a little girl that led Naaman to Christ. Christ can 
find useful work for these little ones. He can see little 
things, and we ought to pay great attention to them. As 
I was coming along the street to-day I thought that if I 
could only impress upon you all that we have come here 
as to a vineyard, to reap and to gather, we shall have a 
glorious harvest, and we want every class to assist us. The 
first class we want is the ministers. There was one thing 
that pleased me this morning, and that was the eight 
thousand people who came to this building, and the large 
number' of ministers who seized me by the hand, with the 
tears trickling down their cheeks, and who gave me a 
" God bless you ! " It gave me a light heart. There are 
some ministers who get behind the posts, as if they were 
ashamed of being seen in our company and of our meet- 
ings. They come to criticise the sermon and pick it to 
pieces. No effort is required to do this. We don't want 
the ministers to criticise but to help us, and tell us when 
we are wrong. There was one minister in this city who 
did me a great deal of good when I first started out. When 
I commenced to teach the word of God I made very many 
blunders. I have learned that in acquiring anything a man 
must make many blunders. If a man is going to learn any 
kind of trade — carpenter's, plumber's, painter's — he will 
make any amount of mistakes. Well, this minister, an old 
man, used to take me aside and tell me my errors. So we 
want the ministers to come to us and tell us of our blun- 
ders, and if we get them to do this and join hands with us, 



THE REWARD OF THE FAITHFUL. 2 $ 

a spiritual fountain will break over every church in the city. 
Many ministers have said to me, " What do .you want us 
to do ? " The Lord must teach us what our work shall be. 
Let every child of God come up to these meetings, and 
say, " Teach me, O God, what I can do to help these men 
and women who are inquiring the way to be saved," and at 
the close of the meetings draw near to them and point out 
the way. If men and women are to be converted in great 
meetings, it is by personal dealings with them. What we 
want is personal contact with them. If a number of people 
were sick, and a doctor prescribed one kind of medicine 
for them all, you would think this was wrong. This au- 
dience is spiritually diseased, and what we want is that 
Christian workers will go to them and find out their trouble. 
Five minutes' private consultation will teach them. What 
we want is to get at the people. Every one has his own 
particular burden ; every family has a different story to 
tell. Take the gospel of the Lord to them and show its 
application ; tell them what to do with it, so as to answer 
their own cases ; let the minister come into the inquiry 
room. 

An old man — a minister in Glasgow, Scotland — was one 
of the most active in our meetings. When he would be 
preaching elsewhere he would drive up in a cab, with his 
Bible in his hand. It made no difference what part of 
Glasgow he was preaching in, he managed to attend nearly 
every one of our services. The old man would come in 
and tenderly speak to those assembled, and let one soul 
after another see the light. His congregation was com- 
paratively small when we got there, but, by his painstaking 
efforts to minister to those in search of the word, when we 
left Glasgow his church could not hold the people who 
sought admission, and I do not know of any man who 
helped us like Dr. Andrew Bonner. He was always ready 
to give the weak counsel and point the way out to the soul 



24 GREAT JOY. 

seeking Christ. If we have not ministers enough, let those 
we have come forward, and their elders and deacons will 
follow them. 

The next class we want to help us to reach the people is 
the Sunday school teachers, and I value their experience 
next to that of the ministers. In the cities where we have 
been, teachers have come to me and said, " Mr. Moody, 
pray for my Sunday school scholars," and I just took them 
aside and pointed out their duties and showed how they 
themselves ought to be able to pray for their pupils. Next 
meeting very often they would come, and the prayer would 
go up from them, "God bless my scholars." 

In one city we went to, a Sunday-school superintendent 
came to his minister and said : " I am not fit to gather 
sinners to life eternal ; I cannot be superintendent any 
longer." The minister asked, " What is the reason ? " and 
the man said, " I am not right with God." Then the min- 
ister advised him that the best thing, instead of resigning, 
was to get right with God. So he prayed with that teacher 
that the truth would shine upon him ; and God lit up his 
soul with the word. Before I left that town, the minister 
told me all doubt had fled from that superintendent's mind, 
and he had gone earnestly to work and gathered, from the 
time of his conversion, over six hundred scholars into 
the school of his church. The Lord can bless, of course, 
in spite of schools and teachers ; but they are the chan- 
nels of salvation. Bring your classes together, and 
pray to God to convert them. We have from three 
thousand to five thousand teachers here. Suppose they 
said : "I will try to bring my children to Christ," what 
a reformation we should have ! Don't say that that 
boy is too small, or that girl is too puny or insignificant. 
Every one is valuable to the Lord. A teacher, whom 
I found at our services when she ought to have ,been at- 
tending to her class, upon my asking why she was at our 



THE REWARD OF THE FAITHFUL. 25 

meeting, said : " Well, I have a very small class — -only five 
little boys." " What," said I, " you have come here and 
neglected these little ones ! Why, in that little tow-head 
may be the seeds of a reformation. There may be a Lu- 
ther, a Wheaton, a Wesley, or a Bunyan among them. 
You may be neglecting a chance for them, the effects of 
which will follow them through life." If you do not look 
to those things, teachers, some one will step into your 
vineyard and gather the riches you would have. 

Look what that teacher did in Southern Illinois. She 
had taught a little girl to love the Saviour, and the teacher 
said to her : " Can't you get your father to come to the 
Sunday-school ? " This father was a swearing, drinking 
man, and the love Of God was not in his heart. But under 
the tuition of that teacher, the little girl went to her father, 
and told him of Jesus' love, and led him to that Sunday- 
school. What was the result ? I heard before leaving 
for Europe, that he had been instrumental in founding 
over seven hundred and eighty Sabbath-schools in Southern 
Illinois. And what a privilege a teacher has — a privilege 
of leading souls to Christ. Let every Sabbath-school 
teacher say : " By the help of God I will try to lead my 
scholars to Christ." 

It seems to me that we have more help in our revivals 
from young men, except from mothers, than from any other 
class. The young men are pushing, energetic workers. 
Old men are good for counsel, and they should help, by 
their good words, the young men in making Christianity 
aggressive. These billiard halls have been open long 
enough. There is many a gem in those places, that only 
needs the way pointed out to fill their souls with love of 
Him. Let the young men go plead with them, bring them 
to the tabernacle, and don't let them go out without pre- 
senting the claims of Christ, and show them His never- 
dying love. Take them by the hand and say : " I want 



2 6 GREATJOY. 

you to become a Christian." What we want is a hand-to- 
hand conflict with the billiard saloons and drinking halls. 
Do not fear, but enter them and ask the young men to 
come. I know that some of you say, in a scornful way : 
" We will never be allowed to enter ; the people who go 
there will cast us out." This is a mistake. I know that 
I have gone to them and remonstrated, and have never 
been unkindly treated. And some of the best workers 
have been men who have been proprietors of these places, 
and men who have been constant frequenters. There are 
young men there breaking their mothers' hearts, and los- 
ing themselves for all eternity. The spirit of the Lord 
Jesus Christ asks you to seek them out. If we cannot 
get them to come here, let the building be thrown 
aside, and let us go down and hunt them up, and tell them 
of Christ and heaven. If we cannot get a multitude to 
preach to, let us preach, even if it be to one person. Christ 
preached one of His most wonderful sermons to that woman 
at the well ; and shall we not be willing to go to one, 
as He did, and tell that one of salvation ? And let us 
preach to men, even if they are under the influence of 
liquor. 

I may relate a little experience. In Philadelphia, at one 
of our meetings, a drunken man rose up. Till that time I 
had no faith that a drunken man could be converted. 
When any one approached he was generally taken out. 
This man got up and shouted, " I want to be prayed for." 
The friends who were with him tried to draw him away, 
but he shouted only louder, and for three times he repeated 
his request. His call was attended to, and he was con- 
verted. God has power to convert a man even if he is 
drunk. 

I have still another lesson. I met a man in New York, 
who was an earnest worker, and I asked him to tell me his 
experiences. He said he had been a drunkard for over 



THE REWARD OF THE FAITHFUL 2 f 

twenty years. His parents had forsaken him, and his wife 
had cast him off and married some one else. He went into 
a lawyer's office in Poughkeepsie, mad with drink. This 
lawyer proved a good Samaritan, and reasoned with him 
and told him he could be saved. The man scouted the 
idea. He said : " I must be pretty low when my father 
and mother, my wife and kindred, cast me off, and there is 
no hope for me here or hereafter." But this good Samari- 
tan showed him how it was possible to secure salvation ; 
got him on his feet, got him on his beast, like the good 
Samaritan of old, and guided his face toward Zion. And 
this man said to me : " I have not drank a glass of liquor 
since." He is now leader of a young men's meeting in 
New York. I asked him to come up last Saturday night 
to Nortbfield, my native town, where there are a good many 
drunkards, thinking he might encourage them to seek sal- 
vation. He came, and brought a young man with him. 
They held a meeting, and it seemed as if the power of God 
rested upon that meeting when these two men went on 
telling what God had done for them — how He had destroyed 
the works of the devil in their hearts, and brought peace 
and unalloyed happiness to their souls. These grog shops 
here are the works of the devil — they are ruining men's 
souls every hour. Let us fight against them, and let our 
prayers go up in our battle, " Lord, manifest Thy power in 
Chicago this coming month." It may seem a very difficult 
thing for us, but it is a very easy thing for God to convert 
rumsellers. 

A young man in New York got up and thrilled the 
meeting with his experience. " I want to tell you," he 
said, " that nine months ago a Christian came to my house 
and said he wanted me to become a Christian. He talked 
to me kindly and encouragingly, pointing out the error of 
my ways, and I became converted. I had been a hard 
drinker, but since that time I have not touched a drop of 



28 GREAT JOY. 

liquor. If any one had asked who the most hopeless man 
in that town was they would have pointed to me." To-day 
this young man is the superintendent of a Sabbath school. 
Eleven years ago, when I went to Boston, I had a cousin 
who wanted a little of my experience. I gave him all the 
help I could, and he became a Christian. He did not 
know how near death was to him. He wrote to his brother 
and said : " I am very anxious to get your soul to Jesus." 
The letter somehow went to another city, and lay from the 
28th of February to the 28th of March — just one month. 
He saw it was in his brother's handwriting, and tore it 
open and read the above words. It struck a chord in his 
heart, and was the means of converting him. And this 
was the Christian who led this drunken young man to 
Christ. 

This young man had a neighbor who had drank for 
forty years, and he went to that neighbor and told him 
what God had done for him, and the result was another 
conversion. 

I tell you these things to encourage you to believe that 
the drunkards and saloon-keepers can be saved. There is 
work for you to do, and by and by the harvest shall be 
gathered, and what a scene will be on the shore when we 
hear the Master on the throne shout, " Well done ! Well 
done ! " 

Let me say a word to you, mothers. We depend a good 
deal upon you. It seems to me that there is not a father 
and mother in all Chicago who should not be in sympathy 
with this work. You have daughters and sons, and if 
work is done now they will be able to steer clear of many 
temptations and will be able to lead better lives here. It 
seems to me selfishness if they sit down inactive and say, 
" There is no use in this. We are safe ourselves, what is 
the use of troubling ? " If the mothers and fathers of the 
whole community would unite their prayers and send up 



THE REWARD OF THE FAITHFUL, 29 

appeals to God to manifest His power, in answer to them 
there would be mighty work. 

I remember in Philadelphia we wanted to see certain 
results, and we called a meeting of mothers. There were 
from five to eight thousand mothers present, and each of 
them had a particular burden upon her heart. There was 
a mother who had a wayward daughter, another a reckless 
son, another a bad husband. We spoke to them confi- 
dently, and we bared our hearts to one another. They 
prayed for aid from the Lord, and that grace might be 
shown to these sons and daughters and husbands, and the 
result was that our inquiry rooms were soon filled with 
anxious and earnest inquirers- 

Let me tell you about a mother in Philadelphia. She 
had two wayward sons. They were wild, dissipated youths. 
They were to meet on a certain night and join in dissipa- 
tion. The rendez-vous was at the corner of Market and 
Thirteenth streets, where our meetings were held. One 
of the young men entered the large meeting, and when it 
was over went to the young men's meeting near at hand, 
and was quickened, and there prayed that the Lord might 
save Mfti. His mother had gone to the meeting that night, 
and, arriving too late, found the door closed. When that 
young man went home he found his mother praying for 
him, and the two mingled their prayers together. While 
they were praying together the other brother came from 
the other meeting, and brought tidings of being converted, 
and at the next meeting the three got up and told their 
experience, and I never heard an audience so thrilled 
before or since. 

Another incident. A wayward boy in London, whose 
mother was very anxious for his salvation, said to her, " I 
am not going to "be bothered with your prayers any longer, 
I will go to America and be rid of them." " But, my boy/' 
she said, " God is on the sea, and iri America, and He 



30 GREAT JOY. 

hears my prayers for you." Well, he came to this country, 
and as they sailed into the port of New York some of the 
sailors told him that Moody and Sankey were holding 
meetings in the Hippodrome. The moment he landed he 
started for our place of meeting, and there he found Christ. 
He became a most earnest worker, and he wrote to his 
mother and told her that her prayers had been answered ; 
that he had been saved, and that he had found his mother's 
God. 

Mothers and fathers, lift up your hearts in prayer, that 
there may be hundreds of thousands saved in this city. 

When I was in London, there was one lady dressed in 
black up in the gallery. All the rest were ministers. I 
wondered who that lady could be. At the close of the 
meeting I stepped up to her, and she asked me if I did 
not remember her. I did not, but s^he told me who she 
was, and her story came to my mind. 

When we were preaching in Dundee, Scotland, a mother 
came up with her two sons, 16 and 17 years old. She said 
to me, " Will you talk to my boys ? " I asked her if she 
would talk to the inquirers, and told her there were more 
inquirers than workers. She said she was not a good 
enough Christian— was not prepared enough. I told her I 
could not talk to her then. Next night she came to me 
and asked me again, and the following night she repeated 
her request. Five hundred miles she journeyed to get God's 
blessing for her boys. Would to God we had more moth- 
ers like her. She came to London, and the first night I 
was there, I saw her in the Agricultural Hall. She was 
accompanied by only one of her boys — the other had died. 
Towards the close of the meetings I received this letter 
from her : 

" Dear Mr. Moody : For months I have never considered the 
day's work ended unless you and your work had been specially prayed 
for. Now it appears before us more and more. What in our little 



THE REWARD OF THE FAITHFUL. 



31 



measure we have found has no doubt been the happy experience of 
many others in London. My husband and I have sought as our 
greatest privilege to take unconverted friends one by one to the 
Agricultural Hall, and I thank God that, with a single exception, those 
brought under the preaching from your lips have accepted Christ as 
their Savior, and are rejoicing in His love." 

That lady was a lady of wealth and position. She lived 
a little way out of London ; gave up her beautiful home 
and took lodgings near the Agricultural Hall, so as to be 
useful in the inquiry room. When we went down to the 
Opera House she was there ; when we went down to the 
east end there she was again, and when I left London she 
had the names of 150 who had accepted Christ from her. 
Some said that our work in London was a failure. Ask 
her if the work was a failure, and she will tell you. If we 
had a thousand such mothers in Chicago we would lift it. 
Go and bring your friends, here to the meetings. Think of 
the privilege, my friends, of saving a soul. If we are going 
to work for good we must be up and about it. Men say, 
" I have not the time." Take it. Ten minutes every day 
for Christ will give you good wages. There is many a 
man who is working for you. Take them by the hand. 
Some of you with silver locks, I think I hear you saying, 
" I wish I was young, how I would rush into the battle." 
Well, if you cannot be a fighter, you can pray and lead on 
the others. There are two kinds of old people in the 
world. One grows chilled and sour, and there are others 
who light up every meeting with their genial presence, and 
cheer on the workers. Draw near, old age, and cheer on 
the others, and take them by the hand and encourage 
them. There was a building on fire. The flames leaped 
around the staircase, and from a three-story window a 
little child was seen who cried for help. The only way to 
reach it was by a ladder. One was obtained and a fireman 
ascended, but when he had almost reached the child, the 



3 2 GREAT JOY. 

flames broke from the window and leaped around him. 
He faltered and seemed afraid to go further. Suddenly 
some one in the crowd shouted, " Give him a cheer," and 
cheer after cheer went up. The fireman was nerved with 
new energy, and rescued the child. Just so with our young 
men. Whenever you see them wavering, cheer them on. 
If you cannot work yourself, give them cheers to nerve 
them on in their glorious work. May the blessing of God 
fall upon us this afternoon, and let every man and woman 
be up and doing. 



CHARITY. 



You will find the text in the first verse of the chapter I 
read this evening — ist Corinthians, 13th chapter : " Though 
I speak with the to?igues of men and of angels, and have not 
charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal" 
You, I have no doubt, wondered how it is that they have 
not met with more success. I think if I have asked my- 
self this question once, I have a thousand times : " Why is 
it that I have not had greater success ?" But I never read 
this chapter without finding it out. It is a chapter that 
every Christian ought to read at least once a week, I think 
with a great deal of profit. A man may be a preacher and 
have all the eloquence of a Demosthenes — he may be 
the greatest pulpit orator that ever lived, but if love is not 
the motive power " it is as sounding brass or tinkling cym- 
bal." A good many churches have eloquent ministers. 
The people go there and listen critically and closely, but 
there are no converts. They have wondered why. The 
cause has been the lack of love. If a minister has not got 
love deep in his heart you may as well put a boy in the 
pulpit and make him bea<- a big drum. His talking is like 
the " sounding of brass." 

Failures to make converts in those churches are common, 
and the reason so many preachers have failed is because 
love has not been the motive power. The prophet may 
understand prophesy and interpret it in such a clear way 
as to astonish you. I have met men and sat down beside 
them, and they would dig out the most wonderful truths 
3 33 



34 GREAT JOY. 

out of prophecy which I could not see. I have sat at their 
feet and wondered at their power in this respect, and 
wondered also why it was that they were not blessed with 
more converts. I have sought the cause, and invariably 
found it was want of love. A man, though he is deep in 
learning and in theology, if he has no love in his heart he 
will do no good. A man may understand all the mysteries 
of life, may be wonderful in seeking out truths, yet may 
not be blessed by winning men. Paul says that though a 
man understand all mysteries, if he have no love his under- 
standing goes for nothing ; and he goes a step further and 
says that a man may give large sums to feed the poor, but 
if love does not accompany the gift it goes for naught in 
the sight of God. The only fruit on the tree of life worth 
the having is love. Love must be the motive power. A 
man may give his thousands to the poor and get the gift 
written about in the paper, where you will see that he is a 
good philanthropic man, yet if love does not prompt the 
doed, it goes for nothing in God's sight. Many a man 
here is very liberal to the poor. If you ask him for a 
donation to a charitable purpose he draws his purse and 
puts down $ 1,000 ; if you come to him for a subscription 
for this or that theological seminary he will draw his check 
instantly ; but God looks down into that man's heart, and 
if he has no love it goes for nothing. Some men would 
give everything they have — would give their body for what 
they think is a good cause — for some truth they've got 
hold of ; yet there is no love in the act. 

The main teaching of this chapter is that love must be 
the motive power in all our actions. If our actions are 
merely performed out of a sense of duty, God will not 
accept us. I've heard this word duty in connection with 
Christian work till I am tired of it. I have come down to 
a meeting and some one has got up and asked a brother 
to get up and speak. After considerable persuasion he 



CHARITY. 



35 



has got upon his feet and said : " Well, I did not intend 
to speak when I came down to-night, but I suppose it is 
my duty to say something.*' And it is the same with the 
Sunday school ; many teachers take up classes from a sense 
of duty. There is no love in them, and their services go 
for nothing. Let us strike for a higher plane — let us throw 
a little love into our actions, and then our services will be 
accepted by God if love will be the motive power. 

I have an old mother away down in the Connecticut 
mountains, and I have been in the habit of going to see 
her every year for twenty years. Suppose I go there and 
say, " Mother, you were very kind to me when I was 
young — you were very good to me ; when father died you 
worked hard for us all to keep us together, and so I have 
come to see you because it is my duty." I went then only 
because it Was my duty. Then she should say to me, 
"Well, my son, if you only come to see me because it is 
your duty, you need not come again." And that is the 
way with a great many of the servants of God. They 
work for Him because it is their duty — not for love. Let 
us abolish this word duty, and feel that it is only a privilege 
to work for God, and let us try to remember that what is 
done merely from a sense of duty is not acceptable to 
God. 

One night when I had been speaking in this way in 
London, a minister said to me after services, " Now, 
Moody, you are all wrong. If you take this word duty out 
from its connection with our works, you will soon have all 
the churches and Sunday schools empty." "Well," said I, 
" I will try and convince you that I am all right. You are 
married?" " Yes*" " Well, suppose this was your wife's 
birthday, and you bought a present of a book for her, and 
you went home and said, ' Now, my wife, this is your birth- 
day, I have felt it my duty to buy something for you — 
here's a book ; take it.' Would your wife not be justified 



36 GREAT JOY. 

in refusing it?" "Well," said he, " I think you are cor- 
rect ; she would be right in refusing it." That wife would 
want a present given her through love, not duty. What 
Christ wants is that we will work for Him because we love 
Him. The first impulse of a young convert is to love, and 
if a young man attempts to talk to people without he has 
been won to Christ by love — without he has been converted 
by the true spirit of the Holy Ghost — his efforts fall short 
of their mark. If he has been touched to the heart with the 
love of Jesus, the first thing he does is to shout out that 
love which is waiting for all hearts. Paul, in the fifth 
chapter of Galatians, tells you that the fruit of the Spirit 
is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering." That is the fruit of 
the Spirit. He commences this line with love at the head 
of the list, and if love is not the motive we have not been 
born of the Spirit. 

Let us ask ourselves the question : " Is love the motive 
power that urges us to go out and work for God ? " This 
is the first question that we ought to ask ourselves. With- 
out it a great deal of work will go for naught. The work 
will be swept away like chaff without it. Christ looks 
down and examines our hearts and actions, and although 
our deeds may be great in the eyes of the world, they may 
not be in his eyes. 

Look at that woman in Jerusalem. All the rich people 
were casting in their treasures to the Lord. I can see the 
women and men come into the temple, some giving $100, 
others giving $300, and others putting in $500, and if there 
had been newspapers in Jerusalem in those days, there 
would have been notices of these contributions. It would 
have sounded very well in print. But by and by a poor 
widow woman comes along and puts in a humble two mites. 
I can see the Lord sitting at the treasury when that woman 
comes with her little all, and hear Him saying : " That 
woman hath given more than all of them." Why ? Not 



OHARITY. 37 

owing to the large amount. No ; but simply because it 
was love that prompted that woman. 

The one great thing that the church lacks at the present 
day, and if you ask me to put it into as small space as pos- 
sible I can put it into a word of four letters — and that is, 
" Love." Show me a church in which the members love 
one another, and I will show you a church that is on fire 
in the cause of Christ. In it there is a revival every day 
for the twelve months of the year — the 365 days of the 
year are filled with continual manifestations of Christ's 
love. That is the lack to-day. There is lukewarmness— 
coldness one towards another. In Second Titus Paul tells 
what Christians' lives should be — sound in faith, sound in 
love, and sound in patience. If a man is not sound in 
faith, we would draw his head right off ; if he is not sound 
in faith, put him out. But let him be ever so unsound in 
love, he will be kept in. How many men are here in Chi- 
cago who are in churches and who are continually picking 
to pieces and slandering their brothers. He is continually 
going about finding fault with some one. He has no love. 
Those who do not love in the way stated in this chapter, 
ponder well its meaning. Let the question go home to 
every heart here to-night: "Is there any one I:do not 
love ? " If you are treasuring up in your heart any feeling 
of hatred toward any man or woman, God will not love 
you. You must be ready to forgive and love. I do not 
know that we could put up anything better on the plat- 
form than that motto that " God is love," and may it be 
burned into your heart. You say you love them who love 
you. Any black-hearted hypocrite can love those who love 
him. But what Christ wants to teach us is to love them 
that hate us and slight us. If you can only convince men 
that you love them, you can influence them. That is what 
we want to do in order to touch the hearts of those we 
come in contact with the coming month. If one of us 



38 GREAT JOY. 

went to a bad man and said to him, " You are the worst 
man in Chicago," that would not touch him ; it would only 
harden his heart the more. We want to go to him lovingly, 
and show him the love that Christ offers him. When the 
Son of Man came into the world it was love that moved 
Him, and we will never do any good with anybody till our 
own hearts are touched with that same love. If we are 
not loving toward others they will not like us, and instead 
of trying to talk for Christ we had better keep away. A 
worker must win the hearts and affections of the people 
before he can do any effective work. 

When in London, Dr. Arnott came down from Edin- 
burgh to one of our meetings, and he told those people 
something — I don't think the Londoners understood him, 
but if they knew of farm life as I did, they would have 
known what he meant. He said : " When I was on my 
father's farm, when they wanted to teach a calf to drink, 
they would bring it to the pail and a man would dip his 
finger into the milk and put it into the calf's mouth, draw* 
ing his hand slowly away, and before you knew it the calf 
was drinking itself. And so," he said, " if you want to 
win people to Christ you have to go lovingly to them and 
lead them gradually to Him." If you do not make people 
love you, you need not talk to them. Oh that God may 
show you this truth to-night, that the great lever of the 
Christian is love ! If a Sabbath school teacher does not 
love his scholars — -if he goes to them as if it was a lesson 
he wished to get over, it will not be long before they find 
it out. They will see it in his eyes, in his face, in his ac- 
tions. And so, let us see to-night the necessity of having 
the love of God in our hearts, and so when we approach 
that drunkard or that gambler we can win him to Christ; 
and so that when you show him the Gospel and tell him 
you want him to be saved, he will receive you with a wel- 
come. If you go to him from a sense of duty you will 



CHARITY. 



39 



make no progress with him, but if you go to him and talk 
of the love of Christ, and show kindness in your actions, 
he will hear you. 

A minister in London said to me one night : " Mr. 
Moody, I want you to pray for a lot of people who will be 
at the meeting to-night ; " and when I went there I saw in 
one corner a father, mother, and four or five children. 
And I prayed for them. When I got home I asked the 
minister about that family, and he said they had been won 
to Jesus by a smile. He said he was passing by a house 
in that city one day at the window of which a little child 
was standing. He liked children, and he smiled to it and 
bowed. This minister was in the habit of passing the 
house every day, and the second time he noticed the child 
again, and he smiled again. The next time there were 
several children there, and he smiled and bowed again. 
When he came again he saw the same children standing 
there, but he saw a lady standing with them. He thought 
it would not be right to bow to the lady, but he smiled at 
the children, and the lady said when she saw him looking 
so pleasant, " That man must be a minister." My friends, 
it would be a good thing if all ministers had a smile on 
their faces. There are more men driven away from churches 
by sour looks than by anything else. A minister ought to 
have a clear conscience, and he would wear a pleasant 
smile. Some of you will say, "Well, Christ was melan- 
choly, and wept over sinners." Ah, but it was love. 
There is such a thing as a man weeping in his love. Well, 
the Lady said to her little ones, "I want you to follow that 
gentleman, for I am sure he is a minister." And when he 
came round again the children went after him, shadowing 
him through several streets, until by-and-bye he turned 
into an Independent church. The children followed him 
right in and they brought home a good report. They said 
they never had such a preacher, although probably they 



4 GREAT JOY. 

did not understand a word he said. But you know a little 
pat on the head and a kindly look goes a long way with 
children. Well, the result was that the mother came and 
she brought the father. They became converted, and thus 
a whole family were brought to Christ by a smile. 

We want to believe that the love of Christ is the best 
thing we can have. If a man wants to buy a horse he 
goes, around till he finds the best horse for his money. 
You women, if you want to buy a dress, go from one store 
to another and search till you find the best dress. And it 
is the universal law of the world over. So if we can show 
the sinners, by love, that the religion of Jesus Christ is the 
best thing to have, we can win the world to us. If we can 
only show that we are full of love and not full of envy and 
malice and bitterness, every one can be won to Christ. If 
the spirit of love can come upon all of us, so that we can 
talk to every one kindly, it will not be long before salvation 
shall break over us through Christ. 

You go into a church that is all aglow with love, and into 
another where there is a lack, and mark the difference. 
In the latter the people get as far away from the pulpit as 
possible ; and mark the coldness, and see how quick they 
get out of the church. Their hearts are cold to one another, 
and they have no sympathy. But when their hearts are all 
aglow they crowd round and are genial toward one anoth- 
er, and " God bless the sermon," however poor the minis- 
ter who preaches. The reason that we have so many poor 
ministers is because we have so few praying people. Look 
at Joshua, while he was righting for the Lord, Moses was up 
on the mountain praying. So we want every one to pray 
for their ministers while they are fighting for the Lord. 
When a man comes to me and grumbles and complains 
about his minister, I ask him, " Do you ever pray for your 
minister?" He runs away. It spikes his guns. They do 
not work with the minister : never think of praying for 



CHARITY. 



41 



him. We want to see every man red-hot for the Saviour, 
and. he will wake up the church. If he had got his heart 
red-hot, sparks will kindle in the little circle, and the whole 
church will be ablaze. Every soul will be filled with the 
glory of Christ. There is not a man in all Chicago — I do 
not care what he is ; he may be an Atheist, a Pantheist, a 
drunkard, or a gambler — I do not believe that a man's 
heart is so hard but that God can break it. 

Mr. Warner, superintendent of probably one of the larg- 
est Sunday schools in the world, had a theory that he would 
never put a boy out of his school for bad conduct. He 
argued that if a boy misbehaved himself it was through 
bad training at home, and that if he put him out of the 
school no one would take care of him. Well, this theory 
was put to the test one day. A teacher came to him and 
said, " I have got a boy in my class that must be taken 
out ; he breaks the rules continually, he swears and uses 
obscene language, and I cannot do anything with him." 
Mr. Warner did not care aboui" putting the boy out, so^ he 
sent the teacher back to his class. But he came again, 
and said that unless the boy was taken from his class he 
must leave it. Well, he left, and a second teacher was 
appointed. The second teacher came with the same story, 
and met with the same reply from Mr. Warner. And he 
resigned. A third teacher was appointed, and he came 
with the same story as the others. Mr. Warner then 
thought he would be compelled to turn the boy out at last. 
One day a few teachers were standing about, and Mr. 
Warner said : " I will bring this boy up and read his name 
out in the school, and publicly excommunicate him." 
Well, a young lady came up and said to him : " I am not 
doing what I might for Christ \ let me have the boy ; I will 
try and save him." But Mr. Warner said: "If these 
young men cannot do it you will not." But she begged to 
have him, and Mr. Warner consented. She was a wealthy 



4 2 GREAT JOY. 

young lady, and surrounded with all the luxuries of life.. 
The boy went to her class, and for several Sundays he be- 
haved himself and broke no rule. But one Sunday he 
broke loose, and in reply to something she said, spat in her 
face. She took out her pocket-handkerchief and wiped 
her face, but said nothing. Well, she thought upon a plan, 
and she said to him, " John " — we will call him John — 
"John, come home with me." "No," says he, "I won't; 
I won't be seen on the streets with you." She was fearful 
of losing him altogether if he went out of the school that 
day, and she said to him, " Will you let me walk home with 
you ?" " No, I wont," said he. *' I won't be seen on the 
street with you." Then she thought upon another plan. 
She thought on the "Old Curiosity Shop," and she said, 
"I won't be at home to-morrow or Tuesday, but if you will 
come round to the front door on Wednesday morning there 
will be a little bundle for you." " I don't want it ; you 
may keep your old bundle." She went home, but made 
the bundle up. She thought that curiosity might make him 
come. 

Wednesday morning arrived, and he got over his mad fit, 
and he thought he would just like to see what was in this 
bundle. The little fellow knocked at the door, which was 
opened, and he told his story. She said : " Yes, here is 
the bundle." The boy opened it, and found a vest and a 
coat and other clothing, and a little note written by the 
young lady, which read something like this : 

" Dear Johnnie : Ever since you have been in my class 
I have prayed for you every morning and evening, that you 
might be a good boy, and I want you to stop in my class. 
Do not leave me." 

The next morning, before she was up, the servant came 
to her and said there was a little boy below who wished to 
see her. She dressed hastily, and went down stairs, and 
found Johnnie on the sofa, weeping. She put her arms 



CHARITY. 43 

around his neck, and he said to her, " Mv dear teacher, I 
have not had any peace since I got this note from you. 
I want you to forgive me. Won't you let me pray for you 
to come to Jesus ? " And she went down on her knees 
and prayed. And now, Mr. Warner said, that boy was the 
best boy in the Sunday school. 

Arid so it was love that broke that boy's heart. May the 
Lord give us that love in abundance ! May we be so full 
of love that every one may see that it only prompts us to 
bring them to heaven ! 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 



You will find my text in part of the twenty-ninth verse of 
the tenth chapter of Luke, " And who is my neighbor ? " We 
are told that as Christ stood with his disciples a man, a 
lawyer, stood up and tempted him, and said, " Master, what 
shall I do to inherit eternal life ? " He asked what he could 
do to inherit eternal life, what he could do to buy salvation. 
And the Lord answered his question. " What is written in 
the law ? How readest thou ? " To which the lawyer 
answered : " Thou shalt love the Lord God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and 
with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." " Thou 
hast answered right," but " who is thy neighbor ? " and He 
drew a vivid picture, which has been told for the last eighteen 
hundred years, and I do not know anything that brings out 
more truthfully the wonderful power of the Gospel than this 
story, which we have heard read to-night- — the story of the 
man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and who 
fell among thieves. Jerusalem was called the city of 
peace. Jericho and the road leading to it were infested 
with thieves. Probably it had been taken possession of by 
the worst of Adam's sons. I do not know how far the man 
got from Jerusalem to Jericho, bujt the thieves had come 
ou% and fallen upon him, and had taken all his money, and 
stripped him of his clothes, and left him wounded — left him. 
I suppose, for dead. By and by a priest came down the 
road from Jerusalem. We are told that he came by chance. 
Perhaps he was going down to dedicate some synagogue, 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 



45 



or preach a sermon on some important subject, and had the 
manuscript in his pocket. As he was going along on the 
other side he heard a groan, and he turned around and saw 
the poor fellow lying bleeding on the ground, and pitied 
him. He went up close, took a look at him, and said : 
" Why, that man's a Jew, he belongs to the seed of Abra- 
ham. If I remember aright I saw him in the synagogue 
last Sunday. I pity him. But I have too much business, 
and I cannot attend to him." He felt a pity for him, and 
looked on him, and probably wondered why God allowed 
such men as those thieves to come into the world, and 
passed by. There are a good many men just like him. 
They stop to discuss and wonder why sin came into the 
world, and look upon a wounded man, but do not stop to 
pick up a poor sinner, forgetting the fact that sin is in the 
world already, and it has to be rooted out. But another 
man came along, a Levite, and he heard the groans : he 
turned and looked on him with pity, too. He felt com- 
passion for him. He was one of those men that if we had 
here we should probably make him elder or a deacon. He 
looked at him and said : " Poor fellow ! he's all covered 
with blood, he has been badly hurt, he is nearly dead, and 
they have taken all his money and stripped him naked. 
Ah, well, I pity him ! " He would like to help him, but he, 
too, has pressing business, and passes by on the other side. 
But he has scarcely got out of sight when another comes 
along, riding on a beast. He heard the groans of the 
wounded man, went over and took a good look at him. 
The traveller was a Samaritan. When he looked down he 
saw the man was a Jew. Ah, how the Jews looked down 
upon the Samaritans. There was a great, high partition 
wall between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Jews 
would not allow them into the temple. They would not 
have any dealings with them. They would not associate 
with them. I can see him coming along that road, with his 



4 6 GREAT JOY. 

good, benevolent face ; and as he passes he hears a groan 
from this poor fellow. He draws in his beast and pauses 
to listen. " And he came to where he was." This is the 
sweetest thing to my mind in the whole story. ' A good 
many people would like to help a poor man if he was on the 
platform, if it cost them no trouble. They want him to 
come to them. They are afraid to touch the wounded 
man ; he is all blood, and they will get their hands soiled. 
And that was just the way with the priest and the Levite. 
This poor man, perhaps, had paid half of all his means to 
help the service of the Temple, and might have been a 
constant worshipper, but they only felt pity for him. This 
good Samaritan " came to where he was," and after he saw 
him he had compassion on him. That word " compassion " 
— how sweet it sounds ! The first thing he did on hearing 
him cry for water— the hot sun had been pouring down 
upon his head — was to go and get it from a brook. Then 
he goes and gets a bag, that he had with him — what we 
might call a carpet-bag or a saddle-bag in the West — and 
pours in oil on his wounds. Then he thinks : " The poor 
fellow is weak," and he goes and gets a little wine. H© 
has been lying so long in the burning sun that he is nearly 
dead now — he was left half dead — and the wine revives 
him. He looks him over, and he sees his wounds that 
want to be bound up. But he has nothing to do this with. 
I can see him now tearing the lining out of his coat, and 
with it binding up his wounds. Then he takes him up and 
lays him on his bosom till he revives, and, when the poor 
fellow gets strength enough, the good Samaritan puts him 
on his own beast. If the Jew had not been half dead he 
would never have allowed him to put his hands on him. 
He would have treated him with scorn. But he is half 
dead, and he cannot prevent the good Samaritan treating 
him kindly and putting him on his beast. 

Did you ever stop to think what a strong picture it would 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 47 

have been if the Samaritan had not been able himself to g$t 
the man on the beast — if he had had to call any assistance ? 
Perhaps a man would have come along, and he would have 
asked him to help him with the wounded man. "What are 
you ? " he might have said. "I am a Samaritan." You 
are a Samaritan, are you ? I cannot help you, I am a Jew." 
There is a good deal of that spirit now, just as strong as it 
was then. When we are trying to get a poor man on the 
right way, when we are tugging at him, to get his face 
towards Zion, we ask some one to help us, and he says, "I 
am a Roman Catholic." " Well," you say, "lama Prot- 
estant." So they give no assistance to one another. The 
same party spirit of old is present to-day. The Protestants 
will have nothing to do with the Catholics, the Jews will 
have nothing to do with the Gentiles. And there was a 
time — but, thank God, we are getting over it — when a 
Methodist would not touch a Baptist (a voice — " Amen "), 
or a Presbyterian a Congregationalist ; and if we saw a 
Methodist taking a man out of the ditch, a Baptist would 
say, " Well, what are you going to do with him? " "Take 
him to a Methodist church." "Well, I'll have nothing to 
do with him." A great deal of this has gone by, and the 
time is coming when, if we are trying to get a man out of 
the ditch, and they see us tugging at him, and we are so 
weak that we cannot get him on the beast, they will help 
him. And that is what Christ wants. 

Well, the Samaritan gets him on his beast, and says to 
him : "You are very weak; my beast is sure-footed, he will 
take you to the inn, and I will hold you." He held him 
firmly, and God is able to hold every one he takes out of 
the pit. I see them going along that road, he holding him 
on, and he gets him to the inn. He gets him there, and 
he says to the innkeeper : " Here is a wounded man ; the 
thieves have been after him ; give him the best attention 
you can ; nothing is too good for him." And I can imag- 



48 GREAT JOY. 

ine the good Samaritan as stopping there all night, sitting 
up with him, and attending to his wants. And the next 
morning he gets up, and says to the landlord : " I must be 
off," leaving a little money to pay for what the man has 
had ; " and if that is not enough, I will pay what is neces- 
sary when I return from my business in Jericho." This 
good Samaritan gave this landlord twopence to pay for 
what he had got, and promised to come again and repay 
whatever had been spent to take care of the man, and he 
had given him besides all his sympathy and compassion. 
And Christ tells this story in answer to the lawyer who 
came to tempt him, and showed that the Samaritan was the 
neighbor. Now this story is brought out here to teach the 
church-goers this thing : that it is not creeds or doctrines 
that we want, so much as compassion and sympathy. I 
have been talking about the qualifications which we require 
in working for Christ. First night I took " Courage," then 
" Love," and last night " Faith," and now it is " Compas- 
sion and Sympathy." 

If we have not compassion and sympathy our efforts will 
go for naught. There are hundreds of Christians who 
work here who do very little because they have not sym- 
pathy. If they go to lift up a man, they must put them- 
selves into his place. If you place yourself in sympathy 
with a man you are trying to do good to, you will soon lift 
him up. 

When at the Hippodrome in New York, a young man 
came up to me ; he looked very sad, his face was troubled. 
I asked him what was the matter, and he said : " I am a 
fugitive from justice. When in England, when I was 
young, my father used to take me into the public-house 
with him, and I learned the habit of drinking, and liquor 
has become to me like water. A few months ago I was in 
England, where I was head clerk in a large firm ; I was 
doing well. I had $50 a week. Well, one night I was out, 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 49 

and I had some money of my employers with me, and I 
got to gambling and lost it. I ran away from England and 
left a wife and two lovely children. Here I am ; I cannot 
get anything to do ; I have no letters of recommendation ; 
and what shall I do ? " " Believe in the Lord Jesus 
Christ," said I. " I cannot become a Christian with that 
record behind me, there is no hope for me," he replied. 
" There is hope ; seek Jesus, and leave everything be- 
hind," I told him. "Well," said he, " I cannot do that until 
I make restitution." But I kept him to that one thing. 
He wrote me a letter, and said that the sermon " He must 
be born again," had made a great impression on him. He 
could not sleep that night, and he finally passed from 
darkness into light. He came to me, and he said : " I am 
willing to go back to England and surrender myself, and 
go into prison, if Christ wants it." I said to him : " Don't 
do that ; but write to your employers and say that if Christ 
helps you you will make restitution. Live as economically 
as you can, and be industrious, and you will soon find all 
well." The man wrote to his employers, and I got a letter 
from him shortly afterward, and he told me that his wife 
was coming out to -New York. When I was last there I 
made inquiry about him, and found that he was doing 
well. He only wanted sympathy — some one to take him 
by the hand and help him, I believe that there are not 
less than 1 0,000 yoxing men in Chicago who are just wait- 
ing for some one to come to them with sympathy. You do 
not know how far a loving word will go. When I came to 
this city twenty years ago, I remember I walked up and 
down the streets trying to find a situation ; and I recollect 
how, when they roughly answered me, their treatment 
would chill my soul. But when some one would say : " I 
feel for you ; I would like to help you, but I can't; but 
you will be all right soon," I went away happy and light- 
hearted. That man's sympathy did me good. 

4 



S o GREAT JOY. 

When I first went away from home, and to a place some 
thirteen miles away, it seemed as if I could never be any 
further away. My brother had gone to live at that town a 
year and a half before. I recollect as I walked down the 
street with him I was very homesick, and could hardly 
keep down the tears. My brother said to me : "There's a 
man here will give you a cent ; he gives a cent to every 
new boy that comes here." I thought that he would be 
the best man I had ever met. By and by he came along, 
and I thought he was going to pass me. My brother 
stopped him, thinking, I suppose, I was going to lose the 
cent, and the old gentleman— he was an old gentleman — 
looked at me and said : " Why, I have never seen you 
before : you must be a new boy." " Yes," said my brother, 
he has just come." The old man put his trembling hand 
upon my head, and patted it and told me that I had a 
Father in heaven, although my earthly father was dead, and 
he gave me a new cent. I don't know where that cent 
went to, but the kindly touch of that old man's hand upon 
my head has been felt by me all these years. What we 
want is sympathy from men. There are hundreds of men 
with hearts full of love, w T ho, if they received but words of 
sympathy, their hearts would be won to a higher life. But 
I can imagine men saying : " How are you going to reach 
them ? ' How are you going to do it ? How are you going 
to get into sympathy with these people ? " It is very 
easily done. Put yourself into their places. There is a 
young man, a great drunkard ; perhaps his father was 
a drunkard. If you had been surrounded with influences 
like his, perhaps you would have been a worse drunkard 
than he is. Well, just put yourself into his place, and go 
and speak to him lovingly and kindly. 

I want to tell you a lesson taught me in Chicago a few 
years -ago.- In the months of July and August a great 
many deaths occurred among children, you all know. I 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. gj 

remember I attended a great many funerals, sometimes I 
would go to two or three funerals a day, I got so used to 
it that it did not trouble me to see a mother take the last 
kiss and the last look at her child, and see the coffin-lid 
closed. I got accustomed to it, as in the war we got 
accustomed to the great battles, and to see the wounded 
and the dead never troubled us. When I got home one night 
I heard that one of my Sunday-school pupils was dead, 
and her mother wanted me to come to the house. I went 
to the poor home, and saw the father drunk. Adelaide 
had been brought from the river. The mother told me she 
washed for a living, the father earned no money, and poor 
Adelaide's work was to get wood for the fire. She had 
gone to the river that day and seen a piece floating on the 
water, had stretched out for it, had lost her balance, and 
fallen in. The poor woman was very much distressed. 
" I would like you to help me, Mr. Moody," she said, " to 
bury my child. I have no lot, I have no money." Well, 
I took the measure for the coffin and came away. I had 
my little girl with me, and she said : " Papa, suppose we 
were very, very poor, and mamma had to work for a living, 
and I had to get sticks for the fire, and was to fall into 
the river, would you be very sorry ? " This question 
reached my heart. " Why, my child, it would break my 
heart to lose you," I said, and I drew her to my bosom. 
" Papa, do you feel bad for that mother ? " she said, and 
this word woke my sympathy for the woman, and I started 
and went back to the house, and prayed that the Lord 
might bind up that wounded heart. When the day came for 
the funeral I went to Graceland. I had always thought 
my time too precious to go out there, but I went. The 
drunken father was there and the poor mother. I bought 
a lot, the grave was dug, and the child laid among strangers. 
There was another funeral coming up, and the corpse was 
laid near the grave of little Adelaide. And I thought how 



S 2 GREATJOY. 

I would feel if it had been my little girl that I had been 
laying there among strangers. I went to my Sabbath 
school thinking this, and suggested that the children 
should contribute and buy a lot in which we might bury a 
hundred poor little children. We soon got it, and the papers 
had scarcely been made out when a lady came and said, 
" Mr. Moody, my little girl died this morning, let me bury 
her in the lot you have got for the Sunday school children." 
The request was granted and she asked me to go to the 
lot and say prayers over her child. I went to the grave — it 
was a beautiful day in June, and I remember asking her 
what the name of her child was. She said Emma. That 
was the name of my little girl, and I thought what if it had 
been my own child. We should put ourselves in the places 
of others. I could not help shedding a tear. Another 
woman came shortly after and wanted to put another one 
into the grave. I asked his name. It was Willie, and it 
happened to be the name of my little boy — the first two 
laid there were called by the same names as my two child- 
ren, and I felt sympathy and compassion for those two 
women. 

If you want to get into sympathy, put yourself into a 
man's place. Chicago needs Christians whose hearts are 
full of compassion and sympathy. If we haven't got it, 
pray that we may have it, so that we may be able to reach 
those men and woman that need kindly words and kindly 
actions far more than sermons. The mistake is that we 
have been preaching too much and sympathizing too little. 
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of deeds and not of 
words. May the Spirit of the Lord come upon us this 
night. May we remember that Christ was moved in com- 
passion for us, and may we, if we find some poor man 
going down among thieves, or lying wounded and bleeding, 
look upon him with sympathy, and get below him and 
raise him up. Let us pray. 



"HIS OWN BROTHER." 



I want to call your attention this morning to a text you 
will find in the first chapter according to John, part of the 
41st verse: " He first findeth his own brother, and brought 
him to Jesus." 

I thought this morning I would like to just take a leaf 
out of my own life in the past that it may help some of those 
present in this hall who have brothers that are very dear 
to them, but who are out of Christ. Twenty-one years ago 
last March, when God converted me, the very first thing 
that came into my mind was my six brothers. Then and 
there I began to pray for them. I had never prayed for 
them before ; and I began to cry to God that these six 
brothers and two sisters might be led home to peace. And 
for twenty-one years that has been my prayer : that has 
been my cry to God. I remember the first time I went 
home after my conversion. I thought I could tell them 
what God had done for me. I thought I had only to ex- 
plain it, to have them all see the light. How disappointed 
I was when I left home that first time, after remaining for 
a few days, to find that they did not see it. I was not very 
experienced in pleading for souls then. Perhaps I did not 
go at it in the right way. But I kept on, as best I could. 
And a few years after, when I was in this city — three years 
after, I was in a store on Lake street, a postman came one 

day and brought a letter that told me my youngest brother 

53 



54 GREATJOY. 

was given up by the physician to die. That day he was 
dying ; I went into the fifth story of "that building, and if 
ever I prayed earnestly in my life I did then that my brother 
might be spared. He was the Benjamin of the family. 
He was born after my father died. I thought I could give 
him up then if he only was a Christian. But I had not any 
hope. The thought that my brother, who was very dear to 
me, dearer to me than my life, it seemed, should die thus 
in his sins, was too much for me to stand, and I wrestled 
with God in prayer. It seemed God answered my prayer. 
The next letter said he was better. He had a run of 
typhoid fever that lasted forty-two days. And when he 
got off that bed. I felt, in answer to prayer, the boy was 
much dearer to me than ever before. But he never was 
well during sixteen or eighteen years. I remember four- 
teen years ago he came to me to this city. I have that 
dear boy' in my heart now. I thought then my opportunity 
had surely come, and I could lead him to Christ. But he 
was taken sick again. I could not keep him here. The 
doctor said he might live a number of years, but could not 
be cured. Naturally very ambitious and proud-spirited, he 
did not want to go back home. But the doctor said it was 
the best I could do, and I took him back to Massachusetts. 
I took him home from Chicago to Northfield, all the way 
preaching Christ to him. But he took no interest in my 
speech.' Everything I said failed to influence him, although 
he seemed to love me very much. And for fourteen years 
I kept that dear boy on my heart. I just kept on praying 
for him. Year after year I went back to the old home just 
to spend a few days with him that I might win him to 
Christ. He knew I wanted him to be a Christian, but it 
seemed he would not comply. He took no interest in the 
Bible, no interest in Christianity. He would talk politics, 
he would talk everything else, but you could not get him 
to talk of Christ or Christianity. I went back home a 



'■HIS OWN BROTHERP 



55 



year ago with a heart just burdened for the salvation of my 
family. My heart burned to draw them to Christ. I went 
to preaching in that town. In the last month, my heart 
going out to that dear boy, I asked all those present in the 
church willing to become Christians to rise, and he, my 
long-sought brother, rose for prayers. What a precious re- 
lief for my heart ! He became an earnest Christian. He 
turned his face toward Heaven that very night. He 
became an active Christian. And when they soon after 
decided to have a Young Men's Christian Association for 
that town, the young men wanted a president, and they 
elected him for president Oh, that was a blessed day for 
me, when my brother, converted to God, after twenty years' 
prayer, took charge of that little band. I heard him make 
his first speech, and that seemed the happiest day of my 
life. He was a young man. of great talents, he was the 
star of the family, the most promising one of the family. 
No one of us could have done as much for Christ had he 
gone to him in his earliest manhood. And he went to work. 
He took a leading part in religious meetings. He went 
and talked with weak brothers and set them on their 
feet again. He searched for souls on both sides of the 
Connecticut River, in both sides of the valley. More con- 
versions took place after I left than when I was there. 
Every Sunday afternoon he would go out into the country 
and take charge of meetings, and as I used to stand in the 
pulpit sometimes, and look down on that young brother in 
his zealous work, no one but God knows how I loved him 
and rejo^ed with great joy. And when God took him he 
was in the midst of his work, bringing others to Christ 
Oh, I want to tell you my thoughts after I left you suddenly. 
The first thought as I went toward my home. Oil, how 
deep the sorrow ! The dear boy was gone forever, and in 
the first moments grief will have its way. That text in 
Scripture, the expression that David used when he lost 



S 6 GREAT JOY. 

Jonathan, kept coming into my mind : " I am very much 
distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan ; very pleasant 
hast thou been unto me ; thy soul to me was wonderful." 
Yes, thy soul to me was wonderful. For these twenty years 
I always knew he was going to meet me at the depot. I 
always found him waiting for me there. I never missed 
him. Sometimes I was three or four trains behind, but he 
was always watching and waiting for me. And that sadly 
beautiful hymn also kept coming into my mind : " We shall 
meet but we shall miss him, there will be one vacant chair." 
But over and above all these the voice from heaven at last 
made itself heard to my heart : " Thy brother shall rise 
again." The cloud was lifted, and for about five hundred 
miles on my way to my home that verse rung in my ears. 
It seemed to echo and re-echo throughout all the journey : 
"Thy brother shall rise again." Oh, the precious Bible! 
It never seemed to me so precious as it did that day. My 
call to mourning was the deepest I have ever known, for 
next, perhaps, to my wife, my two children, and my aged 
mother, I loved none so dearly as this youngest brother. 
But that precious promise gives the heart cause to rejoice 
even in the sorrow of death. And again in the fifteenth 
chapter of Corinthians what divine sustaining words I took 
to my soul. 

" But some men will say, how are the dead raised up ? 
and with what body do they come ? 

" Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, 
except it die. 

" And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not^that body 
that shall be, but bare grain ; it may chance of wheat, or of 
some other grain. 

" But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and 
to every seed his own body. 

" So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in 
corruption ; it is raised in incorruption. 



11 HIS O WN BRO THERr 5 7 

" It is sown in dishonor ; it is raised in glory. It is 
sown in weakness ; it is raised in power." 

Dishonor. Oh, as we laid him down in the cold grave, 
I thought as we laid him away of the worms that would 
come to his body, and of the dishonor. But with what 
power the word of God came to my soul then in these 
words, " It is raised in glory." We sowed it in weakness, 
but it shall be raised in power. It seemed there was vic- 
tory even in that trying hour. It was sown in corruption, 
but it shall be raised incorruptible. It was sown mortal, 
but it shall be raised immortal. It was sown a natural 
body, it shall be raised a spiritual body. And, as it had 
borne the image of the earthly, it shall also bear the image 
of the heavenly. I shall see that brother by and by ; then 
shall he be glorified. Yes, my friends, I could even rejoice 
as I read these blessed assurances of Scripture. The word 
of God came to my soul as never before. Blessed Bible, 
how dark it would have been but for that blessed Book. 
But by its beams all darkness was driven away. It seemed 
I could even thank God for the triumphant death of my 
dear brother, and almost envied him. No, I would not 
have God call him back from heaven into this dark world. 
Yon happy home beyond the grave is far better. What 
joy to tell of good deeds done. A minister down home 
told me that he did not know, a short time back, of a soli- 
tary young man in his neighborhood who would offer 
prayer, but now a numerous and zealous band of 
praying Christians were the fruits of my brother's life. 
And that text came forcibly to my mind : " Blessed are the 
dead that die in the Lord ; even so saith the Spirit, and 
their works do follow them." There were these dear 
young Christian converts following him to his grave ; his 
works did follow him. In the graveyard of the church 
that funeral day I saw 50 of these young men, converted 
mostly in the past year. I shouted even there by the 



5 8 GREAT JOY. 

grave, I could not help it. " Oh, death, where is thy sting? 
Oh grave, where is thy victory ? " And I seemed to hear 
a voice as from the bosom of the Son of God : " Because I 
live ye shall live also." 

And on my way back from Northfield to Chicago this 
has been my thought : If you, my dear Christian friend, 
have a brother out of Christ, go bring him in. You will 
by and by have to stand by the open grave of some dear 
brother, and to be without Christ, how can you bear it ? 
And so, my friends, let me urge upon you, first of all, to 
go and find your own brother. If you have a brother out 
of Christ go to him to-day, tell him how you love him, how 
you want him to be a Christian, how you are burdened and 
weighed down for his salvation. And then go to your 
sister, to your cousin, to your friend. Oh ! do you each 
one of you write to some absent friend to-day, beseeching 
that Christ may be accepted just now ! I thank God from 
the bottom of my heart that my dear brother took a stand 
for Christ, and went to work. I thank God that now his 
works do follow him. The young Christian men met im- 
mediately after he died ; a hundred of them came together 
to choose some one to take his place. And how it rejoic- 
ed my heart that George Moody took the place of Samuel, 
and has set himself earnestly to the work. He said: 
" From now I will try to follow more faithfully after 
Christ." And when we met Wednesday night — it was 
Tuesday we laid him away — another brother was harness- 
ed to the work in place of the dear buried one. Oh, dear 
friend, if souls weigh on our hearts, let us go and bring 
them to Jesus. Let us write to them beseeching letters if 
our lips cannot reach them. Let us not rest day or night. 
Let us this morning go out and bring our friends to Christ. 
Let us commence with our own families ; let us find our 
brothers. If our brothers have yielded, let us go to our 
friends. If they are strangers to Christ, oh, go bring them 



"HIS OWN BROTHER." 59 

now while you may. Exhort by word of mouth ; exhort by 
fervent and repeated letters. Begin at once your mission, 
lest it be too late forever, and praise God for the dear 
privilege of bringing others to Him. 



WHERE ART THOU? 



I want to direct your attention to the third chapter of 
Genesis, part of the ninth verse : " Where art Thou ? " 
You see I have got a very personal text this afternoon. 
All those ministers in this audience will bear me out in 
this statement that it is the hardest kind of work to get 
their congregations to apply this text to themselves. 
When they hear it one man passes it on to another, and 
away it goes, text and sermon. This afternoon I want 
you to understand that it means me, you, and every one of 
us — that it points to us ; that it applies to us personally — 
that it ought to come home to every soul here — to these 
merchants, to these ministers, to these reporters, to these 
great hearted men, to these women, to these little boys and 
girls as a personal question. It was the first question God put 
to man after his fall, and in the 6,000 years that have rolled 
away all of Adam's children have heard it. It has come to 
them all. In the silent watches of the night, in the busy hours 
of the day, it has come upon us many a time — the question 
"Where am I, whither am I going? " and I want you to 
look at it now as a personal question. So let us be 
solemn for a few minutes while we try to answer it. Some 
men look with great anxiety as to how they appear in the 
sight of their fellow men. It is of very little account 
what the world thinks of us. The world is not worth 
heeding ; public opinion is of very little account. We 
should not pay any attention to its opinion. " Where art 
thou going ? " is the question that ought to trouble— 



WHERE ART THOU? ' 61 

" what is to be your hereafter ? " May the question strike 
home to us, and may a heart-searching take place in us, 
and the Holy Spirit search us, so that we may know be- 
fore we sleep to-night where we are now in the sight of 
God, and where we are going in eternity. I remember 
when preaching in New York City, at the Hippodrome, a 
man coming up to me and telling me a story that thrilled 
my soul. One night, he said, he had been gambling ; had 
gambled all the money away he had. When he went 
home to the hotel that night, he did not sleep much — half 
drunk, and with a sort of remorse for what he had done. 
The next morning happened to be Sunday. He got up, 
felt bad, couldn't eat anything, didn't touch his breakfast, 
was miserable, and thought about putting an end to his 
existence. That afternoon he took a walk up Broadway, 
and when he came to the Hippodrome he saw great 
crowds going in and thought of entering too. But a 
policeman at the door told him he couldn't come in, as it 
was a women's meeting. He turned from it and strolled 
on ; came back to his hotel and had dinner. At night he 
walked up the street until he reached the Hippodrome 
again, and this time he saw a lot of men going in. When 
inside, he listened to the singing, and heard the text, 
"Where art thou ? " and he thought he would go out. He 
rose to go, and the text came upon his ears again, " Where 
art thou ? " This was too personal, he thought ; it was dis- 
agreeable, and he made for the door, but as he got to the 
third row from the entrance, the words came to him again, 
" Where art thou ? " He stood still, for the question had 
come to him with irresistible force, and God had found 
him right there. He went to his hotel and prayed all that 
night, and now he is a bright and shining light. And this 
young man, who was a commercial traveller, went back to 
the village in which he had been reared, and in which he 
had been one of the fastest young men — went back there, 



62 GREAT JOY. 

and went around among his friends and acquaintances and 
testified for Christ, as earnestly and beneficially for Him 
as his conduct had been against him. I hope the text will 
find out some young man here who has strayed away from 
God, and come upon him with such force personally as 
will turn him from his present course to take the offers of 
salvation. Won't you believe we are here for you, won't 
you believe we are preaching for you, won't you believe, 
that this enterprise has been carried out for you, and that 
this assembly has been drawn together for you, and may 
you ask your heart solemnly and candidly this question, 
" Where art thou ? " 

I am going to divide this audience into three classes. 
Don't let this startle you, I am not going to make three 
divisions among you. The first class is the class who 
profess to be Christians. I don't know who you are, or 
whether you are sincere. It rests between you and God. 
The other class are the backsliders — those who have been 
good children, but who have turned their backs upon Him, 
and have gone into the regions of sin. And the other class 
is that one that has never been saved, who have never been 
born of the Spirit, who have never sought to reach Christ. 

And now, my friends, as to you who profess to be 
Christians* We who profess to be Christians, are we living 
up to what we preach ? God forgive me, I feel I am not 
doing as much as I should for Him. I don't except my- 
self. You who profess to be Christians, this question is 
personal to you: "Where art thou?" Do you believe 
what you are preaching ; do you live the life you ought 
to be living as professed Christians ? If you were doing 
this tens of thousands of people would be converted in 
Chicago within thirty days. By your neglect to practise 
what you preach, men have got sick of you, the world has 
become tired of you. They say if we really feel what we 
talk about and profess we would be more earnest about 



WHERE ART THOU? ^ 

their salvation. And I say they are right. If Christians 
felt as they should, every church in Chicago, every church 
in the Northwest, would be on fire for the salvation of 
souls. They are lukewarm. Is the church to-day in its 
right position ; is it true to its teachings ; are we not 
mingling with the world in our professed Christian lives, so 
that the world has become tired of our shamming profes- 
sions ? If the world does not see us act according to our 
professions they say Christianity is not real. Why, a young 
man some time ago, a professed Christian, spoke to another 
young man upon the subject, and the Christian was 
answered with the words : " I don't believe a word of your 
Christianity ; I don't believe a word of what you talk 
about ; I don't believe your Bible." ik You don't mean 
that? " asked the Christian. "Yes I do," said the young 
man, "It's all a sham; you are all hypocrites." The 
Christian said to him, knowing he had a mother who was a 
professed Christian, " you don't mean to say that your 
mother is a hypocrite?" "Well, no," said the young 
fellow, not willing to admit his mother was one, " she is not 
exactly a hypocrite, but she don't believe what she pro- 
fesses. If she did she would have talked to me about my 
soul long ago." That young man, my friend, had the best 
of it. And this is the condition of nine-tenths of us — we 
don't practice what we profess to believe. We have not 
really taken the cross of Christ, we have not put off the 
old man and taken on the new ; we are not living truly in 
Christ Jesus, and the world is sick of us, and goes stum- 
bling over us. If we don't practice in every particular the 
professions we make, and try to influence the lives of 
others, and lead the lives of Christians according to Chris- 
tian precept, the world will go on stumbling over i . A 
few years ago, in a town somewhere in this State, a 
merchant died, and while he was lying a corpse I was told 
a story I will never forget. When the physician that at- 



64 GREAT JOY. 

tended him saw there was no chance for him here, he 
thought it would be time to talk about Christ to the dying 
man. And there are a great many Christians just like 
this physician. They wait till a man is just entering the 
other world, just till he is about nearing the throne, till the 
sands of life are about run out, till the death rattle is in 
his throat, before they commence to speak of Christ. The 
physician stepped up to the dying merchant and began to 
speak of Jesus, the beauties of Christianity, and the salva- 
tion He had offered to all the world. The merchant 
listened quietly to him, and then asked him, " How long 
have you known of these things ? " "I have been a Chris- 
tian since I came from the East," he replied. " You have 
been a Christian so long and have known all this, and have 
been in my store every day. You have been in my home ; 
have associated with me ; you knew all these things, and 
why didn't you tell me before ? " The doctor went home 
and retired to rest, but could not sleep. The question 
of the dying man rang in his ears. He could not explain 
why he had not spoken before, but he saw he had neglected 
his duty to his principles. He went back to his dying 
friend, intending to urge upon him acceptance of Christ's 
salvation, but when he began to speak to him the merchant 
only replied in a sad whisper, " Oh, why didn't you tell me 
before ? " Oh, my friends, how many of us act like this 
physician. You must go to your neighbor and tell him who 
does not know Christ, of what He has done for us. If you 
do not tell the glad tidings they are listening to the prompt- 
ings of the devil, and we make people believe that Chris- 
tianity is hypocrisy, and that Christ is not the Saviour of the 
world. If we believe it shall we not publish it, and speak 
out the glorious truth to all for Christ — that He is the 
Redeemer of the world. Some time ago I read a little 
account that went through the press, and it burned into my 
soul. A father took his little child into the fields one day. 



WHERE ART THOU 1 65 

He lay down while the child was amusing itself picking up 
little blades of grass and flowers. While the child was 
thus engaged the father fell asleep, and when he awoke the 
first thought that occurred to him was, " Where is my 
child ? " He looked around everywhere, but nowhere could 
he see the child. He looked all around the fields, over the 
mountains, but could not see her, and finally he came to a 
precipice and looked down among the stones and rocks, 
and there he saw his little child lying down at the bottom, 
and ran down, took the child up, and kissed it tenderly, 
but it was dead. He was filled with remorse, and accused 
himself of being the murderer of his child. And this story 
applies to Christians in their watchful care of their fellow- 
creatures. 

It was not long ago that I heard of a mother making all 
sorts of fun and jeering at our preaching ; not in Chicago, 
but in another town. She was laughing and scoffing at 
the meetings, she was scorning the preachers ; and yet she 
had a drunken son. It might have been if she had helped 
to support the meetings, the meetings would have been the 
means of saving that son from a drunkard's grave ; and 
mothers and fathers here to-day, you have the responsi- 
bility upon you of turning the faces of your children toward 
Zion. Ah, my friends, it is a solemn question to you to- 
day, and may you ask yourself where you are in the sight 
of God. The next class I want to speak to for a few 
moments, for I cannot help believing that in this assembly 
there must be a number of backsliders who have gone 
away from the wayside. You have probably come from 
an Eastern town to this one, and you have come to some 
church with a letter — to some Presbyterian, or Methodist, 
or Episcopalian church. And when you came to that 
church you did not find the love you expected, you didn't 
find the cordiality you looked for, and you did not go 
near it again. So you kept) the letter in your pocket for 

S 



66 GREAT JOY. 

weeks, for years ; might have been thrown in your trunk, 
might have been burned up in the Chicago fire ; and you 
have forgot all about your church life, and the letter has 
disappeared. You lead an ungodly life, but you are not 
happy. I have travelled about a good deal in the last 
five- years, and I never knew a man who had turned away 
from religion to be a happy man. That man's conscience 
is always troubling him. He may come to Chicago and 
become prosperous and wealthy, but his wealth and posi- 
tion in the world cannot fill his heart. If there is a poor 
backslider in this building to-day let him come back. 
Hear the voice that calls you to come back. There is 
nothing you have done which God is not ready and able to 
forgive. If there is a poor wanderer on the mountains of 
sin turn right round and face Him. He will hear your 
transgressions, and forgive your backsliding, and take you 
to His loving bosom, and this will be a happy night to you. 
Look at the home of the backslider. No prayers, no 
family altar there. As in the days of Elijah they have put 
up the image of Baal in the place of their God. They 
have no peace ; their conscience troubles them ; they know 
they are not bringing their family up as they should. Is 
not that the condition of a good many here to-day ? Oh, 
backslider, you know what your life is, but what will be 
your eternity if you fight against the Lord, who is only 
Waiting to do you good ? 

I heard of a young man who came to Chicago to sell his 
father's grain. His father was a minister somewhere 
down here. The boy arrived in Chicago and sold the 
grain ; and when the time came for him to return home 
the boy did not come. The father and mother were up 
all night expecting to hear the sound of the wagon every 
minute, but they waited and waited, but still he did not 
come. The father became so uneasy that he went into the 
stable and saddled his horse and came to Chicago. When 



WHERE ART THOU? 67 

he reached here he found that his son had sold the grain, 
but had not been seen since the sale, and concluded that 
he was murdered. After making investigation, however, 
he found that the boy had gone into a gambling house and 
lost all his money. After they had taken all his money 
from him, they told him to sell his horse and wagon, and 
he would recover his money, which he did. He was like 
the poor man who came down from Jericho to Jerusalem, 
and who fell among thieves, and after they had stripped 
him of everything cast him off. And a great many of you 
think as this young man thought. You think that rum- 
sellers and gamblers are your best friends, when they will 
take from you your peace, your health, your soul, your 
money — everything you have, and then run away. Well, 
the father, after looking about for him fruitlessly, went 
home and told his wife what he had learned. But lie did 
not settle down, but just took his carpet-bag in his hand 
and went from one place to another, getting ministers to 
let him preach for them, and he always told the congrega- 
tion that he had a boy dearer to him than life, and left his 
address with them, and urged them if ever they heard any- 
thing about his boy to let him know. At last, after going 
around a good deal, he got on his track and learned that 
he had gone to California. He went home, but did not 
write a letter to him. No ; he just arranged his business 
affairs and started for the Pacific coast to find his boy. 
This is but an illustration of what God has been doing for 
you. There has not been a day, an hour, a moment, but 
God has been searching for you. When the father got to 
San Francisco he got permission to preach, and he had a 
notice put in the papers in the hope that it might reach 
the mining districts, trusting that if his son were there it 
might reach him. He preached a sermon on the Sunday, 
and when he pronounced the benediction the audience 
went away. But he saw in a corner one who remained. 



68 GREAT JOY. 

He went up to him and found that it was his boy. He 
did not reprimand him, he did not deliver judgment upon 
him, but put his loving arms around him, drew him to his 
bosom, and took him back to his home. This is an illus- 
tration of what God wants to do to us, what He wants to 
do to-day. He offers us His love, and His forgiveness. 

There is one peculiarity about a backslider, you must 
get back to Him as you went away. It is you who have 
gone away by turning, by leaving Him, not He by leaving 
you. And the way to get back to Him is to turn your 
face toward Him, and He will receive you with joy and 
forgiveness. There will be joy in your heart and there 
will be joy in heaven this afternoon if you return to Him. 
If you treated God as a personal friend there would not 
be a backslider. A rule I have had for years is to treat 
the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal friend. His is not a 
creed, a mere empty doctrine, but it is He himself we have. 
The moment we have received Christ we should receive 
Him as a friend. When I go away from home I bid my 
wife and children good-by, I bid my friends and acquain- 
tances good-by, but I never heard of a poor backslider 
going down on his knees and saying : " I have been near 
You for ten years ; Your service has become tedious and 
monotonous ; I have come to bid You farewell ; good-by, 
Lord Jesus Christ." I never heard of one doing this. I 
will tell you how they go away ; they just run away. Where 
are you, you backslider ? Just look upon your condition 
during the past ten years. Have they been years of happi- 
ness? Have they been years of peace? Echo answers 
ten thousand times, " No." Return to Him at once ; 
never mind what your past has been, He will give you 
salvation. 

But I must hasten on to the next class — the unsaved. 
I will admit that professed Christians have got their fail- 
ings ; we are far from being what we ought to be. But is 



WHERE ART THOU t 69 

that any reason why you should not come to Him ? We 
do not preach ourselves^— we do not set ourselves up as 
the Saviour ; if we did you might make this an excuse. 
But we preach Christ. Now, you who are unsaved, won't 
you come ? I do not know who you are in this audience, 
but if the Spirit of God is not born in you, and does not 
tell you you are the children of God, this is an evidence 
that you have not been born of God. Do you love your 
enemies ? Do you love those who slander you ? Do you 
love those who hate you ? Have you joy, peace, long-suf- 
fering, courage, charity? If you have got the fruit of the 
Spirit you have those qualities ; if you have not, you have 
not been born of the Spirit. Now, friends, just ask your- 
self this question ; " Where am I ? • " Here I am in this 
hall to-day, surrounded with praying friends. It seemed, 
sometimes, to me as if the words came to me and fell to 
the floor : and at other times the words fell on the heart. 
We can feel it in this hall to-day, in the atmosphere ; we 
feel its influence all around. It may be that that mother 
is praying for the return of an erring son ; it may be that 
that brother has been praying all the afternoon, " O, my 
God, may the Spirit come to my brother." Dear friends, 
let us ask each other to-day, " Where art thou ? " Resist- 
ing, earnest, trembling prayers of some loving mother, of 
some loving wife — trampling them underfoot ? Now, be 
honest. Have I not been talking to many in this audience 
who made promises five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago — 
who made a promise to serve Him ? Those promises have 
faded away, and those five, ten, fifteen, twenty years have 
rolled on and you are no nearer. Oh, sinner, where art 
thou ? Are you making light of all offers of mercy ? Are 
you turning your back and ridiculing Him and laughing at 
Him ? If you are, may He, the God of mercy, arrest you 
and have mercy on your soul and save you. The last 
three years have been the most solemn years of my life. 



yo GREAT JOY. 

A man's life is just like going up and down a hill. If I 
live the allotted time I am going down the hill. Many of 
you are on the top of the hill and are not saved. Suppose 
you pause a moment and look down the hill on the road 
from whence you came — look back toward the cradle. 
Don't you remember that the sermons you heard ten or 
fifteen years ago moved you ? You say, " When you look 
back at those times, we used to have good sermons, better 
and more earnest ministers than now." Don't you make 
any mistake. The Gospel is the same as it was then, as 
powerful to-day as ever. The fault is not with the minis- 
ters of the Gospel ; it is with yourself- — your heart has be- 
come hard. Then, as you look down into the valley, don't 
you see a little mound and a tombstone ? It marks the 
resting-place of a loving father or a loving mother. Ten 
years ago you had a praying mother. Every morning and 
evening she went down on her knees in her closet and 
prayed for you. Her prayers are ended now, and yet you 
are not saved. It may be, as you look down the stream of 
time, you see a little grave that marks the resting-place of 
your child. It may be that child took you by the hand, 
and asked you, "Will you meet me in that land ? " And 
you promised her that you would meet her there. As you 
looked down into that little grave, and heard the damp, 
cold earth falling down, you repeated that promise. Five, 
ten, fifteen years ago you promised this ; have you kept it? 
Some of you are far down the hill, and hastening to judg- 
ment. May God open your eyes to-day as you look back 
upon your lives and look into the future. It may be that 
you will live the allotted time, but the end is soon to come. 
The average age is thirty-three years. There are a number 
of you in this hall this afternoon who will be in eternity 
inside "of thirty days. Ask yourselves where you are — re- 
sisting the offer of mercy, turning back the offer of God. 
May the loving God show you the Saviour standing at the 



WHERE ART THOU? 



7* 



door of your heart, and knocking and telling you He wants 
to come in and save you. 

In London, when I was there in 1867, 1 was told a story 
which made a very deep impression upon me. A young 
French nobleman came there to see a doctor, bringing 
letters from the French Emperor. The Emperor Napoleon 
III. had a great regard for this young man, and the doctor 
wanted to save him. He examined the young man, and saw 
there was something upon his mind. " Have you lost any 
property ? What is troubling you ? You have something 
weighing upon your mind," said the doctor. " Oh, there is 
nothing particular." " I know better ; have you lost any 
relations ? " asked the doctor. "No, none within the last 
three years." " Have you lost any reputation in your 
country ? " " No." The doctor studied for a few minutes, 
and then said: " I must know -what is on your mind— I 
must know what is troubling you." And the young man 
said : " My father was an infidel ; my grandfather was an 
infidel, and I was brought up an infidel, and for the last 
three years these words have haunted me, ' Eternity, and 
where shall it find me?' " " Ah," said the doctor, "you 
have come to the wrong physician." " Is there no hope 
for me ? " cried the young man. " I walk about in the 
daytime ; I lie down at night, and it comes upon me con- 
tinually — ' Eternity, and where shall I spend it ? ' Tell 
me, is there any hope for me " The doctor said : " Now, 
just sit down and be quiet. A few years ago I was an 
infidel. I did not believe in God, and was in the same 
condition in which you now are." The doctor took down 
his Bible, and turned to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, 
and read : " He was wounded for our transgressions ; He 
was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our 
peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." 
And he read on through this chapter. When he had fin- 
ished, the young man said : " Do you believe this, that He 



7 2 GREAT JOY. 

voluntarily left heaven, came down to this earth, and suf- 
fered and died that we might be saved ? " " Yes, I 
believe it. That brought me out of infidelity, out of 
darkness into light." And he preached Christ and His 
salvation and told him of heaven, and then suggested that 
they get down on their knees and pray. And when I went 
there in 1867, a letter had been received from that young 
nobleman, who wrote to Dr. Whinston, in London, telling 
him that the question of " Eternity, and where he should 
spend it," was settled, and troubling him no more. My 
friends, this question of eternity and where we are going 
to spend it, forces itself upon every one of us. We are 
staying here for a little day. Our life is but a fibre, and 
it will soon be snapped. I may be preaching my last ser- 
mon. To-night may find me in eternity. By the grace of 
God say that you will spend it in heaven. All the hosts 
of hell cannot hinder you, if you make up your mind to 
come to heaven, because if God says, " Let him come," 
who can resist you ? If that little child sitting yonder says 
it will enter heaven, all the hosts of hell cannot keep it 
out. May God help you to spend your eternity in heaven, 
and may you say : " By the grace of God I accept Jesus as 
my Redeemer." 



HEAVEN, I. 



I was on my way to a meeting one night with a friend, 
and he asked, as we were drawing near the church, " Mr. 
Moody, what are you going to preach about ? " "I am 
going to preach about heaven," I said. I noticed a scowl 
passing over his face, and I said, " What makes you look 
so ? " "Why, your subject of Heaven. What's the use of 
talking upon a subject that's all speculation ? It's only 
wasting time on a subject about which you can only specu- 
late ? " My answer to that friend was, " If the Lord doesn't 
want us to speak about heaven He would never have told 
us about such a place in the Scriptures, and, as Timothy 
says, ' All the Scriptures are given by inspiration, and all 
parts are profitable.' " There's no part of the word of God 
that is not profitable, and I believe if men would read more 
carefully these Scriptures they would think more of heaven. 
If we want to get men to fix their hearts and attention 
upon heaven we must get them to read more about it. Men 
who say that heaven is a speculation have not read their 
Bibles. In the blessed Bible there are allusions scattered 
all through it. If I were to read to you all the passages 
upon heaven from Genesis to Revelation it would take me 
all night and to-morrow to do it. When I took some of the 
passages lately and showed them to a lady, " Why," said 
she, " I didn't think there was so much about heaven in 
the Bible." If I were to go into a foreign land and spend 
my days there, I would like to know all about it ; I would 
like to read all about it. I would want to know all about 
its climate, its inhabitants, their customs, their privileges, 



74 GREAT JOY. 

their government. I would find nothing about that land 
that would not interest me. Suppose you all were going 
away to Africa, to Germany, to China, and were going to 
make one of those places your home, and suppose, that I 
had just come from some of those countries, how eagerly 
you would listen. I can imagine how the old grey-haired 
men and the young men and the deaf would crowd around 
and put up their hands to learn anything about it. My 
friends where are you going to spend eternity ? Your life 
here is very brief. Life is but an inch of time ; it is but 
a span ; but a fibre, which will soon be snapped, and you 
will be ushered into eternity. Where are you going to 
spend it. If I were to ask you who were going to spend your 
eternity in heaven to stand up, nearly every one of you 
would rise. There is not a man here, not one in Chicago, 
who has, not some hope of reaching heaven. Now, if we are 
going to spend our future there it becomes us to go to 
work and find out all about it. I call your attention to this 
truth that heaven is just as much a place as Chicago. It 
is a destination — it is a locality. Some people say there 
is no heaven. Some men will tell you this earth is all the 
heaven we have. Queer kind of heaven this. Look at 
the poverty, the disease in the city ; look at the men out of 
employment walking around our streets, and they say this 
is heaven. How low a man has got when he comes to think 
in this way. There is a land where the weary are at rest, 
there is a land where there is peace and joy — where no 
sorrow dwells, and as we think of it and speak about it, 
how sweet it looms up before us. 

I remember soon after I got converted a pantheist got 
hold of me, and just tried to draw me back to the world. 
Those men who try to get hold of a young convert are the 
worst set of men. I don't know a worse man than he who 
tries to pull young Christians down. He is nearer the 
borders of hell than any man I know. When this man 



HEAVEN, I. 75 

knew I had found Jesus he just tried to pull me down. He 
tried to argue with me, and I did not know the Bible very- 
well then, and he got the best of me. The only thing to 
get the best of these atheists, pantheists, or infidels is to 
have a good knowledge of the Bible. Well, this pantheist 
told me God was everywhere — in the air, in the sun. in the 
moon, in the earth, in the stars, but really he meant no- 
where. And the next time I went to pray it seemed as if I 
was not praying anywhere or to anyone. 

We have ample evidence in the Bible that there is such 
a place as heaven, and we have abundant manifestation 
that his influence from heaven is felt among us. He is not 
in person among us ; only in spirit. The sun is 95,000,000. 
miles from the earth, yet we feel its rays. In Second 
Chronicles we read : " If my people which are called by 
my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my 
face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from 
heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 
Here is one reference, and when it is read a great many 
people might ask, " How far is heaven away ? can you tell 
us that ? " I don't know how far it is away, but there is 
one thing I can tell you. He can hear prayer as soon as 
the words are uttered. There has not been a prayer said 
that He has not heard ; not a tear shed that He has not 
seen. We don't want to learn the distance. What we 
want to know is that God is there, and Scripture tells us 
that. Turn to First Kings and we read : " And hearken 
thou to the supplication of Thy servant and of Thy people 
Israel, when they shall pray toward this place, and hear 
Thou in heaven, Thy dwelling place, and when thou hearest 
forgive." Now, it is clearly taught in the word of God that 
the Father dwells there. It is His dwelling place, and in 
Acts we see that Jesus is there too. " But he being full 
of the Holy Ghost looked up steadfastly into heaven and 
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand 



7 6 GREAT JOY. 

of God," and by the eye of faith we can see them there 
to-night too. And by faith we shall be brought into His 
presence, and we shall be satisfied when we gaze upon 
Him. Stephen, when he was surrounded by the howling 
multitude, saw the Son of Man there, and when Jesus 
looked down upon earth and saw this first martyr in the 
midst of his persecution He looked down and gave him a 
welcome. We'll see him by and bye. It is not the jasper 
streets and golden gates that attract us to heaven. What 
are your golden palaces on earth — what is that that makes 
them so sweet ? It is the presence of some loving wife or 
fond children. Let them be taken away and the charm of 
your home is gone. And so it is Christ that is the charm 
of heaven to the Christians. Yes, we shall see Him there. 
How sweet the thought that we shall dwell with Him for- 
ever, and shall see the nails in His bands and in His feet 
which He received for us. 

I read a little story not long since which went to my 
heart. A mother was on the point of death, and the child 
was taken away from her in case it would annoy her. It 
was crying continually to be taken to its mother's and 
teazed the neighbors. By and bye the mother died, and 
the neighbors thought it was better to bury the mother 
without letting the child see her dead face. They thought 
the sight of the dead mother would not do the child any 
good, and so they kept it away. When the mother was 
buried and the child was taken back to the house, the first 
thing she did was to run into her mother's sitting room 
and look all round it, and from there to the bedroom, but 
no mother was there, and she went all over the house crying, 
" Mother, mother ! " but the child could not find her, and 
then said to the neighbor, " Take me back, I don't want to 
stay here if I cannot see my mother." It wasn't the home 
that made it so sweet to the child. It was the presence of 
the mother. And so it is not heaven that is alone attrac- 



HEAVEN, I. *j>j 

tive to us ; it is the knowledge that Jesus, our leader, our 
brother, our Lord, is there. 

And the spirits of loved ones, whose bodies we have laid 
in the earth will be there. We shall be in good company- 
there. When we reach that land, we shall meet all the 
Christians who have gone before us. We are told in 
Matthew, too, that we shall meet angels there : " Take heed 
lest ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto 
you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face 
of my Father which is in heaven." Yes, the angels are 
there, and we shall see them when we get home. 

He is there, and where He is His disciples shall be, for 
He has said : " I go and prepare a mansion for you, that 
wheresoever I am there ye may be also." I believe that 
when we die the spirit leaves the body and goes to the 
mansion above, and by and bye the body will be resurrected 
and it shall see Jesus. Very often people come to me and 
say: " Mr. Moody, do you think we shall know each other 
in heaven ? " Very often it is a mother who has lost a 
dear child, and who wishes to see it again. Sometimes it 
is a child who has lost a mother, a father, and who wants 
to recognize them in heaven. There is just one verse in 
Scripture in answer to this, and that is : " We shall be 
satisfied." It is all I want to know. .My brother who 
went up there the other day I shall see, because I will be 
satisfied. We will see all those we loved on earth up there, 
and if we loved them here we will love them ten thousand 
times more when we meet them there. 

Another thought. In the tenth chapter of Luke we are 
told our names are written there if we are Christians. 
Christ just called His disciples up and paired them off and 
sent them out to preach the gospel. Two of us — Mr. Sankey 
and myself — going about and preaching the Gospel is 
nothing new. You will find them away back eighteen 
hundred years ago going off two by two, like Brothers Bliss 



78 GREAT JOY. 

and Whittle, and Brothers Needham and Morehouse, to 
different towns and villages. They had gone out, and 
there had been great revivals in all the cities, towns and 
villages they had entered. Everywhere they had met with 
the greatest success. Even the very devils were subject to 
them. Disease had fled before them. When they met a 
lame man they said to him, " You don't want to be lame 
any longer," and he walked. When they met a blind man 
they but told him to open his eyes and behold he could 
see. And they came to Christ and rejoiced over their 
great success, and He just said to them, " I will give you 
something to rejoice over. Rejoice that your names are 
written in heaven." Now there are a great many people 
who do not believe in such an assurance as this. " Rejoice, 
because your names are written in heaven." How are you 
going to rejoice if your names are not written there ? While 
speaking about this some time ago, a man told me we were 
preaching a very ridiculous doctrine when we preached this 
doctrine of assurance. I ask you in all candor what are 
you going to do with this assurance if we don't preach it. 
It is stated that our names are written there ; blotted out 
of the Book of Death and transferred to the Book of Life. 

I was with a friend while in Europe — she is in this hall 
to-night. On one occasion we were travelling from London 
to Liverpool, and the question was put as to where we would 
stop. We said we would go to the North Western at Lime 
Street, as that was the hotel where Americans generally 
stopped at. When we got there the house was full, could 
not let us in. Every room was engaged. But this friend 
said, " I am going to stay here. I engaged a room ahead. 
I sent a telegram on." My friends, that is just what the 
Christians are doing — sending their names in ahead. They 
are sending a message up saying : " Lord Jesus I want one 
of those mansions you are preparing ; I want to be there." 
That's what they're doing. And every man and woman 



HEAVEN, L 



79 



here who wants one, if you have not already got one, had 
better make up their mind. Send your names up now. I 
would rather a thousand times have my name written in the 
Lamb's Book than have all the wealth of the world rolling 
at my feet. A man may get station in this world, it will 
fade away ; he may get wealth, but it will prove a bauble. 
" What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul." It is a solemn question, and let it go 
around the hall to-night, " Is my name written in the book 
of life." I can imagine that man down there saying, 
" Yes ; I belong to the Presbyterian Church ; my name's 
on the church's books." It may be, but God keeps His 
books in a different fashion than that in which the church 
records of this city are kept. You may belong to a good 
many churches ; you may be an elder or a deacon and be 
a bright light in your church, and yet you may not have 
your name written in the Book of Life. Judas was one of 
the twelve, and yet he hadn't his name written in the Book 
of Life. Satan was among the elect — he dwelt among the 
angels, and yet he was cast from the high hallelujahs. Is 
your name written in the Book of Life. A man told me 
while speaking upon this subject, " That is all nonsense 
you are speaking." And a good many men here are ot the 
same opinion ; but I would like them to turn to Daniel, 
twelfth chapter, " And there shall be a time of trouble, such 
as never was since there was a nation, even to that same 
time, and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every 
one that shall be found written in the book." Every one 
shall be delivered whose names shall be found written in 
the book. And we find Paul, in the letters which he wrote 
to the Philippians, addressing them as those " dear yoke- 
fellows, whose names were written in the Book of Life." 
If it is not our privilege to know that our names are written 
in the Book of Life, here is Paul sending greeting to his 
yoke-fellows, " whose names were written in the book." Let 



80 GREAT JOY. 

I 

us not be deceived in this. We see it too plainly through- 
out the Holy Word. In the chapter of Revelations which 
we have just read, we have three different passages refer- 
ring to it, and in the twenty-first verse, almost the last words 
in the Scriptures, we read : " And there shall in nowise 
enter into it anything which defileth, neither whatsoever 
worketh abomination or maketh a lie ; but they which are 
written in the Lamb's Book of Life." My friends you will 
never see the city unless your name is written in that Book 
of Life. It is a solemn truth. Let it go home to every 
one and sink into the hearts of all here to-night. Don't 
build your hopes on a false foundation ; don't build your 
hopes on an empty profession. Be sure your name is 
written there. And the next thing after your own names 
are written there is to see that the names of the children 
God has given you are recorded there. Let the fathers 
and mothers assembled to-night hear this and take it to 
their hearts. See that your children's names are there. Ask 
your conscience if the name of your John, your Willie, your 
Mary, your Alice — ask yourselves whether their names are 
recorded in the Book of Life. If not, make it the 
business of your life, rather than to pile up wealth for them : 
make it the one object of your existence to secure for them 
eternal life rather than to pave the way to their death and 
ruin. 

I read some time ago of a mother in an Eastern city 
who was stricken' with consumption. At her dying hour 
she requested her husband to bring the children to her. 
The oldest one was brought first to her, and she laid her 
hand on his head and gave him her blessing and dying 
message. The next one was brought, and she gave him the 
same ; and one after another came to her bedside until the 
little infant was brought in. She took it and pressed it to 
her bosom, and the people in the room, fearing that she 
was straining her strength, took the child away from her. 



HEAVEN, I. Si 

As this was done she turned to the husband and said, " I 
charge you, sir, bring all those children home with you." 
And so God charges us . The promise is to ourselves and 
to our children. We can have our names written there, and 
then by the grace of God we can call our children to us 
and know that their names are also recorded there. That 
great roll is being called, and those bearing the names are 
summoned every day — every hour ; that great roll is being 
called to-night, and if your name were shouted could you 
answer with joy ? You have heard of a soldier who fell 
in our war. While he was lying dying, he was heard to cry, 
"Here! here!" some of his comrades went up to him 
thinking he wanted water, but he said : " They are calling 
the roll of heaven, and I am answering," and in a faint 
voice he whispered " here ! " and passed away to heaven. 
If that roll was called to-night would you be ready to 
answer " Here ! " I am afraid not. Let us wake up : may 
every child of God wake up to-night. There is work to do. 
Fathers and mothers, look to your children. If I could 
only speak to one class, I would preach to parents, and try 
to show them the great responsibility that rests upon them. 
There is a man living on the bank of the Mississippi 
River. The world calls him rich, but if he could call back 
his first-born son he would give up all his wealth. The 
boy was brought home one day unconscious. When the 
doctor examined him he turned to the father, who stood at 
the bedside, and said : " There is no hope." " What ! " 
exclaimed the father, " is it possible my boy has got to 
die." " There is no hope," replied the doctor. " Will he 
not come to ? " asked the father. " He may resume con- 
sciousness, but he cannot live." " Try all your skill, 
doctor. I don't want my boy to die." By and bye the boy 
regained a glimmering of consciousness, and when he was 
told that his death was approaching, he said to his father, 
Won't you pray for my lost soul, father ? You have never 

6 



82 GREAT JOY. 

prayed for me." The old man only wept. It was true. 
During the seventeen years that God had given him his 
boy he had never spent an hour in prayer for his soul, but 
the object of his life had been to accumulate wealth for 
that first-born. Am I speaking to a prayerless father or 
mother to-night ? Settle the question of your soul's salva- 
tion and pray for the son or daughter God has given you. 

But I have another anecdote to tell. It was Ralph 
Wallace who told me of this one. A certain gentleman had 
been a member of the Presbyterian Church. His little boy 
was sick. When he went home his wife was weeping, and 
she said, " Our boy is dying. He has had a change for 
the worse. I wish you would go in and see him." The 
father went into the room and placed his hand on the brow 
of his dying boy, and could feel that the cold, damp sweat 
was gathering there ; that the cold, icy hand of death was 
feeling for the chords of life. " Do you know, my boy that 
you are dying ? " asked the father. " Am I ? Is this 
death ? Do you really think I am dying ? " " Yes, my 
son, your end on earth is near. " And will I be with 
Jesus to-night, father?" "Yes, you "will be with the 
Saviour." " Father don't you weep, for when I get there I 
will go right straight to Jesus and tell Him that you have 
been trying all my life to lead me to Him." God has given 
me two little children, and ever since I can remember I 
have directed them to Christ, and I would rather lead them 
to Jesus than give them the wealth of the world. If you 
have got a child go and point the way. I challenge any 
man to speak of heaven without speaking of children. 
" For d"f such is the kingdom of heaven." Fathers and 
mothers and professed Christians ignore this sometimes. 
They go along themselves and never try to get any to 
heaven with them. Let us see to this at once, and let us 
pray that there may be many names written in the Lamb's 
Book of Life to-night. 



HEAVEN, II. 



You who were here last night remember that the sub- 
ject upon which I spoke was " Heaven, and who were 
there." We tried to prove from Scripture that God the 
Father, and Christ the Son, and angels and redeemed 
saints who have gone up from earth are there, and that if 
we have been born of God our names are recorded there. 
Now I will commence to-night right where I left off last 
night, and the next thought upon the subject that presents 
itself is, " are we laying our treasures there ? " If we are 
living as God would have Us live, we are doing this. There 
are a great many people who forget that there are eleven 
commandments. They think there are only ten. The 
eleventh commandment is : " Lay up for yourselves 
treasures in heaven." How many of us remember — ah ! 
how people in Chicago forget the words of the Lord now 
in His wonderful sermon on the mount : " Lay not up for 
yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth 
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal ; but 
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither 
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not 
break through nor steal." How few of our people pay 
any heed to these words. That's why there are so many 
broken hearts among us ; that's why so many men and 
women are disappointed and going through the streets 
with shattered hopes ; it's because they have not been lay- 
ing up treasures in heaven. They pile up treasures on 
earth, and some calamity comes upon them and sweeps all 

83 



8 4 GREAT JOY. 

away. The Chicago fire burned up a good many of these 
treasures. A great number of people put their treasures in 
banks, which dissolve, and away they go. Some have put 
their treasures in railway shares which have all disappear- 
ed like a vapor ; and that is why so many are broken- 
hearted to-day, and in great distress, and do not know 
what is before them. If they had taken heed of the words 
of this commandment this thing would not have happened 
to them. " Lay up your treasures in heaven." It don't 
take long in conversation with a man to find out where 
his heart is. Wherever it is, there is his treasure. Go to 
a political man and talk to him about Hayes and Wheeler, 
or Tilden or Hendricks, on any political question, and how 
his heart gets ablaze and his eye sparkles. His treasure 
is in politics. Go talk to a man who loves the theater 
about a new play, and see how his eye glistens. His 
heart is set upon pleasure — upon the world. And yet 
another class whose heart is set on business. Go to him 
and talk to him about some new speculation, and show him 
where he can make a few thousand dollars, and you will 
soon tell where his treasure lies. But talk about heaven 
and all interest is lost. I could not help that thought 
coming to me last night, when I saw before me some 
dozing — some almost asleep, as if they thought I was 
talking about a myth • and others were sitting with eyes 
aglow, and all attention when I mentioned heaven. Ah ! 
they expected to go there, and were glad to hear about 
it. 

Some men think it is too far away to lay up their treas- 
ures. I was talking to a business man before the fire 
about laying up treasures in heaven, and he said : " I like 
to have my treasure where I can see it." And that is the 
way with a great many people — they like to have their 
treasures here so they can see them. It is a great mistake. 
People go on accumulating what they must leave behind 



HEAVEN, II. 3- 

them. How many here do not devote five minutes to Any- 
thing else than money-making. It is money, moneys- 
money, and if they get it they are satisfied. You will see 
occasionally in the newspapers accounts of men dying who 
are worth so many millions. It is a great mistake. He 
cannot take it with him. If it is in business, it ain't his. 
If it is in banks, it ain't his. If in real estate, he cannot 
take it. It ain't his. Now, ask yourselves to-night, 
" Where is my treasure ? " Is my heart set upon things 
down here ? " If it is set upon wealth it will by and by 
take to itself wings and fly away. Oh, think of this. If 
your heart is set upon pleasure, it will melt away ; if 
your heart is set upon station, reputation, some tongue 
may blast it in a moment, and it is gone. If your hopes 
and heart are set upon some loved wife or dear children, 
whom you have set up in your hearts as an idol in place of 
your God, death may come and snatch your god from 
your life. It is wrong to set up anything, however dear to 
us, in the place of our God. And so it is wrong " to lay 
up treasures for yourselves upon earth." 

Now, are you — are the people of Chicago heeding this 
commandment ? Ask yourselves this as you are passing 
through the street to-morrow : " How many of the people 
of this city are obeying this commandment. i Lay up for 
yourselves treasures in heaven ? ' " 

I remember before the Chicago fire hearing of a minis- 
ter coming up to see his son. He found him completely 
absorbed in real estate. You remember before the fire 
how every one was mad about real estate. It was a mania 
with all of us. If we could get a corner lot, no matter 
whether we threw ourselves in debt, or smothered it with . 
mortgages, we were confident that in time, when prices 
went up, we would make our fortune. This minister came 
up, and when he saw his son he tried to talk about his 
soul, but it was no use. Real estate was there. He talk- 



86 GREAT JOY. 

e d r iDout real estate in the morning, in the afternoon and 
,mght. No use of trying to talk of heaven to him. His 
only heaven was real estate. The son had a boy in his 
store, but he being absent the father was left to mind the 
business one day. When a customer came in and started 
upon the subject of real estate, it was not long before the 
minister stepped off and was speaking to the customer 
about his soul, and telling him he would rather have a 
corner lot in the New Jerusalem than all the corner lots • 
in Chicago. And the people used to say that no real 
estate could be sold when the father was around. The 
trouble was that the son had real estate in his heart — that 
was his god — and his father had in his heart treasures in 
heaven. If we have anything in our hearts which we put 
up as our god, let us ask Him to come to us and take it 
away from us. 

I remember when I went to California just to try and get 
a few souls saved on the Pacific coast. I went into a 
school there and asked, " Have you got some one who 
can write a plain hand ? " " Yes." Well, we got up the 
blackboard, and the lesson upon it proved to be the very 
text we have to-night," " Lay up for yourselves treasures 
in heaven." And I said, " Suppose we write upon that 
board some of the earthly treasures ? And we will begin 
with ' gold.' " The teacher readily put down gold, and they 
all comprehended it ; for all had run to that country in the 
hope of finding it. " Well, we will put down ' houses ' next, 
and then ' land.' Next we will put down ' fast horses.' " 
They all understood what fast horses were — they knew a 
good deal more about fast horses than they knew about the 
kingdom of God. Some of them, I think, actually made 
fast horses serve as gods. " Next we will put down 
'tobacco.' " The teacher seemed to shrink at this. "Put 
it down," said I, " many a man thinks more of tobacco than 
he does of God. Well, then, we will put down ' rum.' " He 



HEAVEN. II. 



87 



objected to this — didn't like to put it down at all. " Down 
with it. Many a man will sell his reputation, will sell his 
home, his wife, children, everything he has. It is the god 
of some men. Many here m Chicago will sell their present u 
and their eternal welfare for it. Now," said I, " suppose 
we put down some of the heavenly treasures. Put down 
1 Jesus ' to head the list, then ' heaven,' then ' river of life,' 
then * crown of glory,' and went on till the column was 
filled, and just drew a line and showed the heavenly and 
the earthly things in contrast. My friends, they could not 
stand comparison. If a man just does that, he cannot but 
see the superiority of the heavenly over the earthly treasures. 
Well, it turned out that the teacher was not a Christian. 
He had gone to California on the usual hunt — gold ; and 
when he saw the two columns placed side by side, the 
excellence of the one over the other was irresistible, and he 
was the first soul God gave me on that Pacific coast. He 
accepted Christ, and that man came to the station when I 
was coming away and blessed me for coming to that place. 

Those of you who do not lay your treasures up in heaven 
will be sure to be disappointed. You cannot find a man 
who has devoted his life to the treasures of this life — not 
one in the wide, wide world — but who has been disappointed. 
Something arises in life to sweep all away, or the amount 
of joy which they expect to obtain from their riches falls 
short of their anticipations. If men centre their affections 
on heaven they will have no disappointment ; all is joy and 
comfort from that source, and the whole current of their 
lives will be drifting towards heaven. 

Some one has heard of a farmer who, when some one — 
an agent — called upon him to give something for the 
Christian Commission, promptly drew a check for $10,000. 
He wanted the agent to have dinner with him, and after 
they had dined the farmer took the man out on the 
veranda and pointed to the rich lands sweeping far away 



88 GREAT JOY. 

laden with rich products. " Look over these lands," said 
the farmer. "They are all mine." He took him to the 
pasture and showed the agent the choice stock, the fine 
horses he had, and then pointed to a little town, and then 
to a large hall where he lived, saying, " They are all mine. 
I came here when a poor boy and I have earned all that 
you see." When he got through my friend asked him, 
" Well, what have you got up yonder ? " " Where ? " replied 
the farmer, who evidently knew where my friend meant. 
"What have you got in heaven ? " " Well," said the farmer, 
" I haven't anything there. " What ! " replied my friend, 
"you, a man of your discretion, wisdom, business ability, 
have made no provision for your future ! " He hadn't, and 
in a few weeks he died — a rich man here and a beggar in 
eternity. A man may be wise in the eyes of the world to 
pursue this course, but he is a fool in the sight of God. 
Wealth to most men proves nothing more or less than a 
great rock upon which his eternity is wrecked. 

A great many Christians wonder how it is they don't get 
on better — how it is that they don't get on. It is because 
you have got your heart on things down here. When they 
look towards heaven they don't have a love for the world. 
We are then living for another world. We are pilgrims and 
strangers upon the earth. It is easy to have love for God 
when we have our treasures there. The reason, then, why 
so many of us do not grow in Christianity is because we 
have our treasures here. 

Mr. Moorehouse told me he was looking down the harbor 
of Liverpool one day, when he saw a vessel coming up, and 
she was being towed up by a tug. The vessel was sunk in 
the water nearly to her edge, and he wondered it did not 
sink altogether. Upon inquiry he found that it was loaded 
with lumber and that it was waterlogged. Another vessel 
came up, her sails set, no tug assisting her, and she soon 
darted past the waterlogged vessel. And so it is with some 



HE A VEX, II. 



89 



Christians. They are waterlogged. They may belong 
to a church, and if they find anything in the church dis- 
agreeing with them they won't go back. They want the 
whole church to come out and look for them, and tow them 
in. If the church don't, they think they are not getting the 
attention clue them. When men go up in balloons they take 
bags of sand with them, and when they want to rise higher 
they throw them out. There are a great many Christians 
who have got too many bags of sand, and to rise they want 
to throw some out. Look at the poor men here in the city — 
the rich Christians can relieve themselves by giving some of 
their bags of sand to them. A great many Christians would 
feel much better it they relieved themselves of their bags of 
sand. " He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord," 
and if you want to be rich in eternity, just give to the poor 
with your heart, and the Lord will bless not only you, but 
all connected with you. 

The next thing is our rest in heaven! A great many 
people have got a false idea about the church. They have 
got an idea that the church is a place to rest in. Instead 
of thinking that it is a place of work, they turn it into a 
resting-place. To get into a nicely cushioned pew, and 
contribute to the charities, listen to the minister, and do 
their share to keep the church out of bankruptcy, is all they 
want. The idea of work for them — actual work in the 
church — never enters their mind. In Hebrews we see the 
words : " There is a rest for the people of God." We have 
got all eternity to rest in. Here is the place for work, we 
must work till Jesus comes. This is the place of toil — ■ 
eternity of repose. " Blessed are they that die in the Lord, 
for their works do follow them." Let us do the work that 
God gives us to-day. Don't think that you have to rest in 
the world where God sent His son who was murdered. I 
remember hearing a man who had worked successfully for 
the Lord complaining that he didn't have the success he 



9 o GREAT JOY. 

used to, and one night he threw himself on his bed sick of 
life and wanting to die. While in this state of mind he 
dreamed that he was dead and that he had ascended to 
heaven, and as he was walking down the crystal pavement 
of paradise he saw all at once three friends in a chariot, 
and when the chariot came opposite to where he was one 
of them stepped out and came to him. He noticed that 
His face was illuminated with a heavenly radiance, and He 
came to this man and took him to the battlements of heaven. 
" Look down," said He ; " what do you see ? " " I see the 
dark world," replied the dreamer. " Look down again, and 
tell me what you see." "I see men walking blindfolded 
over bridges, and below them are bottomless pits," was the 
dreamer's reply. "Will you prepare to stay here, or go 
back to earth and tell those men of their danger — tell them 
of the bottomless pits over which they walk." At this the 
man awoke from his sleep and said he didn't want to die 
any more. He just wanted to remain down here and warn 
his fellow T -men from the dangers which surrounded them. 
When we turn a soul to Christ we do not know what will 
turn up — what will be the result of it. It may be the means 
of saving a million souls. The one man may convert 
another man, and those two may convert a hundred, and 
that hundred may convert a thousand, and the current 
keeps widening and widening and deepening and deepening, 
and as time rolls on the fruit will be ripening which you 
have gathered for God. It is a great privilege, my friends, 
to work for God. 

I want to call your attention to the eleventh chapter of 
of Hebrews. After Paul mentions Jacob and Isaac and 
Enoch, he says : " They all died in faith, not having 
received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and 
were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed 
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Are 
the Christians of Chicago living like pilgrims and strangers, 



heaven; il 91 

and by their faith do they show " that they seek another 
country;" do they show by their fruits and their deeds 
that they are pilgrims and strangers here ? When I get 
into a man's mind the beauties of that country beyond the 
grave, it looks as if his only thought was for it. We are to 
be pilgrims and strangers passing through this world on our 
way to a better land. The moment Abraham by faith got 
sight of that land he declared himself a pilgrim and a 
stranger. This earth had no charm for him then. Lot 
might go down to that city of Sodom or Gomorrah, and 
that city might be burned up. We might fix our affections 
on this city. Chicago has been burned twice, and it will 
be burned again — this whole world shall pass away with all 
its boasted riches and glory, and where shall we be then ? 
If we build our hopes here we shall be disappointed ; if we 
build our hopes upon that foundation whose builder and 
maker is God, we shall not be disappointed. We are told 
in Matthew to set our affections on things above, and that 
" there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." 
There are rumors of war in Europe, and if war were 
declared probably it would excite the whole civilized world. 
Trade would be affected, and relations of all kinds. I 
don't know whether it would excite heaven at all. If the 
President of the United States issued a proclamation, I 
don't know whether it would be noticed in heaven or not, 
but the papers would speak of it, the people would be 
excited, and great changes might take place over it. If 
Queen Victoria died telegrams would go all over the world, 
newspapers would speak of it, the whole world would be 
excited — I don't know if it would be noticed in heaven at 
all. But if that girl there should repent there would be joy 
in heaven. Just think of it — think of a little girl, of a little 
girl being the cause of joy in heaven. I don't think the 
papers would record it — they would never notice it. There 
would be no head in the morning telling the people that 



92 GREAT JQY. 

there had been joy in heaven over the repentance of a 
little girl in the Tabernacle. " There is joy over one 
sinner that repenteth." I have been wondering who it is 
that rejoiced in heaven when He brought back that lost 
sheep. We are told that there is joy in the presence of 
the angels ; but who else is it that rejoices ? It may be 
that I am going a little too far, but I think that I have a 
right to believe that the redeemed saints who have gone up 
from earth may be led to rejoice when they hear in heaven 
of the conversion of some living ones here. Perhaps 
while I am speaking some loving mother may be looking 
over the battlements of heaven on her boy in the gallery 
yonder, and it may be that while she was on earth she 
prayed earnestly and constantly, and when she got there 
she pleaded at the throne for mercy to her son. It may 
be that as she is watching some angel will carry the news 
to her of that boy's conversion, and take his name there to 
be recorded in the Book of Life. Perhaps that mother 
and the Lord Jesus Christ will rejoice over that son, or it 
may be some daughter. Perhaps it is some child who is 
looking from that country down to her mother in this hall, 
and when the news of her acceptance of salvation reaches 
that little child she will strike her golden harp and shout : 
" Mother, mother is coming ! " While I was touching on 
this topic in Manchester I remember a man getting up and 
shouting : " Oh, mother, I am coming ! " The mother 
had been fruitless in her endeavors to convert that man 
while on earth, but her intercession there and the influence 
of her prayers here touched his heart and he decided. 

I remember in the Exposition building in Dublin, while 
I was speaking about Heaven, I said something to the 
effect that "perhaps at this moment a mother is looking down 
from Heaven upon her daughter here to-night," and I pointed 
down to a young lady in the audience. Next morning I 
received this letter : 



HE A VEN, II 93 

"On Wednesday when you were speaking of heaven 
you said, ' It may be this moment there is a mother looking 
down from heaven expecting the salvation of her child who 
is here.' You were apparently looking at the very spot 
where my child, was sitting. My heart said, ' that is my 
child. That is her mother.' Tears sprang to my eyes. I 
bowed my head and prayed, ' Lord, direct that word to my 
darling child's heart ; Lord, save my child.' I was then 
anxious till the close of the meeting, when I went to her. 
She was bathed in tears. She rose, put her arms round 
me, and kissed me. When walking down to you she told 
me it was that same remark (about the mother looking 
down from heaven) that found the way home to her, and 
asked me, ' Papa, what can I do for Jesus ? ' " 

May the Spirit of God bring hundreds to the cross of 
Christ to-night. 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, I. 



The subject to-night will be " The Precious Blood." I 
want to call your attention first to the second chapter and 
sixteenth verse of Genesis, " And the Lord God commanded 
the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou may est freely 
eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou 
shall not eat of it : for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou 
shall surely die." There cannot be a law without a penalty. 
There is not a law in our land but has a penalty attached 
to it. If our legislative representatives or members in 
Congress were to make a law and have no penalty appended 
to it it would be worthless. We might make a law forbid- 
ding men to steal, but if we had no penalty to that law I 
don't think we could go home without having our watches 
stolen from us. We could not live without law, and God 
put Adam into the garden under a law, attached to which 
was a penalty. Well, we know how he disobeyed, and 
how he fell, and so the penalty of death came upon him. 
Many people stumble over this.* I used to wonder how it 
was that the penalty of death fell upon him when he lived, 
I think, some nine hundred and ninety-nine years after he 
broke the law; but when I understood my Bible better, I 
learned that it was death to the souW-not physical death, 
but spiritual death. When God came to seek him in thq 
garden, we are told that he hid himself ; he was ashamed 
of his iniquity — just like hundreds of his sons in Chicago ; 
and then we find him dealing with Adam by showing him 
grace. This was the very first thing he did. A great many 
people think God was very severe in His treatment of 

94 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, I. 



95 



Adam ; but He, whenever the offence was committed, 
whenever the law was broken, showed mercy, showed 
grace ; and by this grace a way of escape was presented to 
them. Ah, that little hymn expresses it : " Grace, friend, 
contrived a way," by which Adam could regain the life he 
had forfeited. And so we read that the Lord made "coats 
of skin " to clothe them before He drove them out of Para- 
dise. They received grace before, as we see in the twenty- 
fourth verse : "He drove out the man, and He placed at 
the east end of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming 
sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree 
of life." There's grace and government : and from that 
day till the present God has been dealing with us in that 
way. He rides, we may say, in a chariot with two wheels 
— one grace and the other government. We can see in 
this world how it would be if we had no government. 
There would be no living in it. Adam broke the divine 
law, and so he had to suffer the penalty ; but He gave him 
grace to be redeemed by. He showed Adam and Eve 
grace by killing the animals and then covering their naked- 
ness with coats made from the skins. I can imagine 
Adam's turning to Eve and saying, " Well, in spite of what 
we've done, God loves us after all. He has clothed us ; 
He has given us grace for our sin." And here we find the 
first glimpse of the doctrine of substitution — the substitu- 
tion of the just for the unjust ; the great doctrine of atone- 
ment and substitution foreshadowed in Genesis. 

Then, as we go on, we find the story of Cain and Abel, 
and we are told that " in process of time it came to pass 
that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering 
unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the 
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof ; and the Lord 
had respect unto Abel and to his offering ; but unto Cain 
and his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very 
wroth and his countenance fell." Now we find that Cain 



9 6 GREATJOY. 

brought a bloodless sacrifice — " he brought of the fruit of 
the ground " — and Abel brought a bleeding lamb. Right 
on the morning of grace we see here that God had marked 
a way for men to come to Him, and that way was the way 
that Abel took, and Cain came to God with a sacrifice of 
his own, in his own way. So we find men and women in 
the churches of to-day coming to God with a sacrifice, not 
in God's way, but in their own — coming with their own 
good deeds, or their works, or their righteousness, and 
ignoring the lamb altogether, ignoring the blood completely. 
They don't want to come that way ; they want to come in 
their own fashion. Cain, perhaps, reasoned that he didn't 
see why the products of the earth, why the fruit, shouldn't 
be as acceptable to God as a bleeding lamb. He didn't 
like a bleeding lamb, and so he brought his fruit. Now we 
don't know how there was any difference between those 
two boys. Both must have been brought up in the same 
way ; both came from the same parents, yet we find in the 
offering there was a difference between them. One came 
with the blood, and the other without the blood, and the 
one with the blood had the acceptable sacrifice to God. 

We pass over to the second dispensation — to the eighth 
chapter of Genesis — where we find Noah coming out of 
the ark and putting blood between him and his sins. 
" And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of 
every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt 
offerings on the, altar." God had Noah bring those ani- 
mals clear through the flood that he could offer them as a 
sacrifice when he came from the ark. He took a couple of 
each kind into the ark, and when he came out we find him 
making a blood offering the very first thing. He was a 
man of God ; he walked in the fear of the Lord, and so he 
made the offering of blood. The first thing in the first 
dispensation we see is blood, and the first thing in the 
second dispensation is blood. 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, I. 97 

In the twenty-second chapter of Genesis we find the 
story of Abraham and his only son, Isaac. Abraham was 
a follower of God, a man who loved and feared God, and 
He commanded him to make a blood sacrifice. We read 
in this chapter that He commanded Abraham to make 
the sacrifice of his only son. And we read that the next 
morning the old man saddled his ass" and started. He 
didn't tell his wife anything about it. If he had she would 
likely have persuaded him to remain where he was. But 
he has heard the voice of God, and he obeys the command ; 
he has heard God's wish, and he is going to do it. So, 
early in the morning — he didn't wait till ten or twelve 
o'clock, but went early in the morning— -he takes two of his 
young men with him and his son Isaac, and you can see 
him starting out on the three days' journey. They have 
the wood and the fire, for he is going to worship his God. 
As he goes on he looks at his boy and says, " It is a strange 
commandmlnt that God has given. I love this boy dearly. 
I don't understand it ; but I know it's all right, for the 
Judge of all the earth makes no mistakes." An order from 
the Judge of Heaven is enough for him. The first night 
comes, and their little camp is made, and Isaac is asleep. 
But the old man doesn't sleep. He looks into his face 
sadly and says, " I will have no boy soon ; I shall never 
see him on earth again ; but I must obey God." I can see 
him marching on the next day, and you might, have seen 
him drying his tears as he glanced upon that only son and 
thought upon what he had been called upon to do. The 
second night comes ; to-morrow is the day for the sacrifice 
What a night that must have been to Abraham. " To- 
morrow," he says sadly, " I must take the life of that boy 
— my only son, dearer to me than my life — dearer to me 
than anything on earth." And the third day comes, and 
as they go along they see the mountain in the distance ; 
then he says to the young men : " You stay here with the 

7 



9 8 GREAT JOY. 

beasts." He takes the wood and the fire, and along with 
his boy prepares to ascend Mount Moriah, from which 
could be seen the spot where a few hundred years later the 
Son of man was offered up. As they ascend the mountain 
Isaac says : " There's the wood and the fire, father, but 
where's the sacrifice ? " — thus showing that the boy knew 
nothing of what was in store. How the question must 
have sunk down into the old man's heart. And he answers : 
" The Lord will provide a sacrifice." It was not time to 
tell him, and they go on until they come to the place ap- 
pointed by God, and build the altar, and lay the wood upon 
it. Everything is ready, and E can just imagine the old 
man take the boy by the hand, and, leading him to a rock, 
sitting down there, and telling him how God had called 
upon him to come out of his native land ; how God had 
been in communion with him for fifty years ; what God 
had done for him. " And now," he says, " my boy, when 
I was in my bed three nights ago, God came to me with a 
strange message, in which He told me to offer my child as 
a sacrifice. I love you, my son, but God has told me to do 
this, and I must obey Him. So let us both go down on 
our knees and pray to Him." After they have sent up a 
petition to God, Abraham lays him on the altar and kisses 
him for the last time. He lifts the knife to drive it into 
his son's heart, when all at once he hears a voice : " Abra- 
ham, Abraham, spare thine only son." Ah, there was no 
voice heard on Calvary to save the Son of Man. God 
showed mercy to the son of Abraham. You fathers and 
mothers, just picture to yourselves how you would suffer if 
you had to sacrifice your only son ; and think what it 
must have caused God to give up His only Son. We are 
told that Abraham was glad. The manifestations of Abra- 
ham's faith so pleased God that He showed him the grace 
of heaven, and lifted the curtain of time to let him look 
down into the future to see the Son of God offered, bearing 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, L gg 

the sins of the world. From the peak of this very moun- 
tain might have been seen the very spot where died the 
Saviour of the world. 

We find Abel the first man who went to heaven, and he 
went by way of blood, and we find it in all the worships of 
God from the earliest times. Mr. Sankey sings solos upon 
the redeeming blood. I can imagine when Abel got there 
how he sang the song of redemption. How the angels 
gathered around him and listened to that song ; it was the 
first time they had ever heard that song before ; but 6,000 
years have gone and there's a great chorus of the saints 
redeemed by the atoning blood. The first man that went 
to heaven went by the way of blood, and the last man who 
passes through those pearly gates must go the same way. 
We find not only Abel and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, 
but all of them, went there through an atonement. Now, 
we find in the 12th chapter and 2d verse of Exodus — the 
most important chapter in the word of God : " This month 
shall be unto you the beginning of months ; it shall be the 
first month of the year to you." And then in the 4th 
verse, "And if the household be too little for the lamb, let 
him and his neighbor next unto his house take it accord- 
ing to the number of the souls; every man according to 
his eating shall make your count for the lamb." Now it 
don't say " if the larnb be too small for the household," 
but "if the household be too little for the lamb." You may 
have some pretty large households ; your houses may be 
too small for them, but Christ has plenty of room. We 
don't start from the cradle to heaven, but from the cross. 
That's where eternal life begins — when we come to Cal- 
vary ; when we come to Christ and get grace. We don't 
come to heaven when we are born into the natural world, 
but into the spiritual world. That's where we date our 
spiritual lives from. Before that our lives are a blank so 
far as grace is concerned. Adam dated from the time of 



loo GREAT JOY. 

the flood, and Noah when he came from the ark dated 
from the blood offering, and so the children of Israel when 
they came out of Egypt. And even to-day when they take up 
their pens and date 1876 years — when do they date from ? 
Why, from the blood of Christ ? Everything dates from 
blood. In this chapter we see the command tosacrifice. 
They slew the lamb. God didn't say " Put a lamb to 
your front door, and I will spare you," but on the houses. 
Some classes of people say preach anything but the 
death, preach the life of Christ. You may preach that and 
you'll never save a soul. It is not Christ's sympathy — 
His life — we preach, it is His sacrifice. That's what brings 
men out of darkness. I can imagine some proud Egyptians 
that day, who when they heard the bleating of the lambs — 
th&are must have been over 200,000 lambs — saying, " What 
an absurd performance. Every man has got a lamb, and 
they have got the best lambs out of the flock, too, and they 
are going to cover their houses with the blood." They 
looked upon this as an absurd proceeding — a flaw in their 
character. You may find a good many flaws in your 
character, but you cannot find a flaw in the Lamb of God. 
When the hour came you could see them all slaying their 
lamb, and not only that, but putting the blood on the door- 
posts. To those Egyptians or to the men of the world how 
absurd it looked. They probably said, " Why are you 
disfiguring your houses in that way ? " It was not upon 
the threshold. God didn't want that, but they were to put 
it upon the lintels and doorposts — where God could see it 
that night so that (thirteenth verse) He might see it as a 
token. This blood was to be a substitution for death, and 
all who hadn't that token in the land of Egypt had their 
first-born smitten at midnight. There was a wail from 
Egypt from one end to the other. But death didn't come near 
the homes where was the token. It was death that kept 
death out of the dwelling. 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, I. 101 

Many people say, " I wish I was as good as that woman 
who has been ministering to the sick for the last fifty 
years. I would feel sure of heaven." My friends, if you 
have the blood behind you, you are as safe as anybody on 
this earth. It is not because that woman has been living a 
life of sacrifices in her ministrations to the poor that she 
will enter the kingdom of God. It is not our life of good 
deeds or our righteousness that will take us Lo heaven, but 
the atonement. And the question ought to come to every one 
to-night, "Are we sheltered behind the blood?" If not 
death will come by and by and you will be separated from 
God for eternity. If you have not a substitute you will 
die. Death is passed upon all of us. Why ? Because 
of our sin. If we have not a substitute we have no 
hope. 

Not only were they to have a token, but they were to do 
something else. We read in the nth verse: "And thus 
shall ye eat it ; with your loins girded, your shoes on your 
feet, and your staff in your hand ; and ye shall eat it in 
haste ; it is the Lord's passover." Now a great many 
people wonder why they haven't got more spiritual power, 
and have not the joy of the Lord with them all the time, 
It is because they haven't got the blood of the lamb with 
them. These pilgrims had a long journey before them, and 
the Lord told them to eat the lamb. If we feed upon the 
Lamb we will get strength in proportion. My friends, be 
sure before you commence on your pilgrimage that you are 
sheltered behind the blood, for when He sees the blood, 
death will pass over you. And let me ask this assemblage 
to-night if every one of you have the token ? I was 
speaking to a man some time ago, who, when I asked him 
if he had the token said : " I have prayer," and when he 
got to heaven he would pray, and he thought that would 
admit him. I said to him : "You won't get in that way. 
You must be cleansed by the blood of Christ. That is the 



102 GREAT JOY. 

only power that will open the gates of heaven— the only 
countersign." 

When I went East the other night the conductor came 
around and called for the tickets, I pulled out my ticket 
and he punched it. He didn't know whether it was a 
white or a black man who presented it, I believe. He 
didn't care who it was ; all he wanted was the token. So 
all that God wants is the token of our salvation. It doesn't 
depend upon our deeds, our righteousness, or upon our 
lives ; it depends upon whether or not we are sheltered 
behind the blood. That is the question. It didn't matter 
in that land of Goshen whether the child was six months or 
years old if it was behind the blood. It was not their 
moral character, nor their connections, but the blood that 
saved them. It is the atonement that saves, and that is 
the teaching all through your Bible. 

There is another verse in the twenty-ninth chapter of 
Exodus I want to call your attention to : " Thou shalt slay 
the ram, and thou shalt take his blood and sprinkle it 
round about the altar." Now we see that Aaron the high 
priest could not come to God with his prayers alone. He 
had to sprinkle the blood upon the altar. There was a 
time when I didn't believe in the substitution and in the 
blood, and my prayers went no higher than my head ; but 
when I came to God by Jesus Christ — -by the way of 
blood — it was different. I never knew a man who came to 
God really but who came this way. That great high priest 
had to come this way, too. 

Then, again in the 30th chapter, 10th verse, we see : 
" And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of 
it once in a year, with the blood of the sin-offering of 
atonements ; once in the year shall he make atonement 
upon it throughout your generations ; it is most holy unto 
the Lord." Now, an atonement is the only thing that makes 
a sinner and God one — is the only thing that will bring 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, /. 103 

God and the sinner together. I would like, if I had time, 
to give you all the passages touching upon atonement in 
the Old Testament, but it would take too long. Turn 
again to the eighth chapter of Leviticus. This book of 
Leviticus is one of the most valuable, because it relates all 
about the worship of God. I remember when I used to 
read this book I used to wonder what it was all about — a 
verse like this, for instance ; " And he slew it ; and Moses 
took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron's 
right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon 
the great toe of his right foot." I would say, "What 
does this mean ? ' Put it upon the tip of Aaron's right 
ear.' " What for ? I think I have got a little light upon 
the subject since those days. " Blood upon the ear ? " So 
that a man could hear the voice of God, of course. And 
so a man who has accepted the atonement can hear the 
word rightly. Blood upon the hand of a man, so that he 
who works for God can work rightly. Hundreds of men 
think they are working out their salvation , and they are 
only deceiving themselves. Bear in mind then that a man 
cannot do anything until he is sheltered behind the blood. 
When a man is in this position then he can go and be 
acceptable to God. Then blood upon the feet, so that a 
man can walk with God. You know when God came to 
Adam he hid himself. He hadn't the blood, and he 
couldn't walk with God. He put those people in question 
behind the blood, and he walked among them. When they 
came to the Red Sea the mighty waters opened, and God 
walked with them. In the wilderness they wanted water, 
and a rod struck the rock, and a crystal stream gushed 
forth. Why ? Because they had had the substitution. 

Many people say this is a very mysterious thing, We 
don't understand why God wants blood as an atonement. 
A man said to me : "I detest your religion ; I hate your 
God." " Why ? " I asked. " I detest a God who demands 



104 GREAT JOY. 

blood," he replied. Now, God is not an unjust God. He 
don't demand it without giving us a reason. He tells us in 
His word that " the life of the flesh is in the blood." Take 
the blood out of me and I am a dead man. Life has been 
forfeited, the law has been broken, and the penalty must 
come upon us, and his blood He gives us is life ; it is the 
life of our flesh. Three times we see " blood " mentioned 
in the 23d and 24th verses, and the reason is that it is life. 
You and I have lost life by the fall, and what we want is 
to get back that life we lost, and we have it offered to us 
by the atonement of Christ. I have often thought I would 
far rather be out of Eden and have the blood than be in 
Eden without it. Adam might have been there ten years 
and Satan might have been there ten years, and Satan might 
have come and got him. But some can't see why God 
permitted Adam to fall. They can't begin to discern the 
philosophy of it. They can't see why God ever permitted 
original sin to come into the world. The best answer to 
that was given by the Rev. Andrew Bonner, who said " It 
was a great deal more wonderful that God should send His 
Son down to bear the brunt of it." Let us thank God we 
have a refuge, a substitute for the sin we are groaning 
under. 

Turn to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. You hear a 
good many people saying : " I don't believe in the Old Tes- 
tament, I believe in the new." My friends, both are 
inseparable. A scarlet thread runs through the two and 
binds them together. We, like sheep, have gone astray, 
but " He was wounded for our transgressions. He was 
bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace 
was upon Him ; and with his stripes we are healed." My 
friends, in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah we see it 
prophesied 700 years before it took place that he would 
die and be a substitute for you and me, that we might live. 
And now, my friends, let us aceept Him. It seems base 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, I. 



i°5 



ingratitude not to praise God every hour of our lives that 
He has given such a Saviour. Let us take time. Many 
a young man thinks it noble to scoff at this : I think it the 
basest ingratitude. This atonement is the only hope of my 
eternal life. Take the doctrine of substitution out of my 
Bible, and I would not take it home with me to-night. Let 
us praise God that he loved us so as to give us His only 
son so that we might be saved. 

I remember some years ago reading about a New York 
family. A young man, during the gold fever, went out to 
the Pacific, and left his wife and little boy. Just as soon 
as he was successful he was going to send money. A long 
time elapsed, but at last a letter came enclosing a draft, 
and telling his wife to come on. The woman took a 
passage in one of the fine steamers of the Pacific line, full 
of hope and joy at the prospect of soon being united to her 
husband. They had not been out many days when a voice 
went ringing through the ship, " Fire ! fire ! " The pumps 
were set to work and the buckets were brought into opera- 
tion, but the fire gained upon them. There was a powder 
magazine on 'board, and the captain ordered all the boats 
to be instantly lowered. He knew whenever the fire 
reached the powder they would all be lost. The people 
scrambled into the boats and the mother and boy were 
left on deck. As the last boat was being pushed off the 
woman begged to be taken in. The majority insisted the 
boat was too full, and wanted to push off, but one man put 
in a word for her, and they said they could allow one more 
on board, but no more. What did the mother do ? Did 
she go on board and leave her son ? No. She put her 
boy into that lifeboat and told him if he ever lived to see 
his father to tell him, " I died to save you." And the boat 
pulled away from that ship, and left the mother standing 
there. The vessel went on burning. Presently an explo- 
sion was heard, and all was buried in the ocean. Suppose 



io 6 GREAT JOY. 

that young man was here to-night. Suppose you spoke to 
him about the act of his mother, and he turned round and 
scoffed at it. " Why," you would say, " that ungrateful 
wretch don't deserve to live," and this is what you are 
doing. He laid down His life for you. Now will you speak 
contemptuously about Him ? Will you speak lightly of the 
blood laid down on Calvary for you ? Let us rather all 
thank God we have such a Saviour. Let us live for Him 
when He died for us. Let us pray. 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, II. 



You who' were here last night remember that we spoke 
of the " Precious Blood," and that we looked at a few 
passages in the Old Testament bearing upon the subject. 
To-night I want to take up some passages referring to the 
subject in the New Testament. Soon after we came back 
from Europe to this country, I received a letter from a 
lady saying that she had looked forward to our coming 
back to this country with a great deal of interest, and that 
her interest remained after we had commenced our ser- 
vices, until I came to the lecture on the blood, when she 
gave up all hope of our doing any good. In closing that 
letter, she said : " Where did Jesus ever teach the perilous 
and barbarous doctrine that men were to be redeemed 
by the shedding of His blood ? Never, never did Jesus 
teach that monstrous idea." Let us turn to the 14th 
chapter of Mark, 24th verse, and we will find : " And 
He said unto them, this is my blood of the New Testa- 
ment, which is shed for many," and also in Matthew, 
26th and 28th : " For this is my blood of the New Testa- 
ment, which is shed for the remission of sin." There are 
a good many passages, but it is not necessary to refer to 
more. If Christ did not teach it, and also the apostles— 
if Christ did not preach it, then I have read my Bible all 



I0 8 GREAT JOY. 

these years wrong. I haven't got the key to the Scrip- 
tures ; it is a sealed book to me, and if I don't preach it — 
if I give it up. I've nothing left to preach. Take the 
blessed doctrine of the blood out of my Bible, and my cap- 
ital is gone, and I've got to take to something else.- 

I remember when in the old country, a young man 
came to me — a minister came round to me and said he 
wanted to talk with me. He said to me : " Mr Moody, 
you are either all right, and I am all wrong, or else I am 
right, and you are all wrong." "Well, sir," said I, "you 
have the advantage of me. You have heard me preach, 
and know what doctrines I hold, whereas, I have not 
heard you, and don t know what you preach." Well," 
said he, " the difference between your preaching and mine 
is that you make out that salvation is got by Christ's 
death, and I make out that it is attained by His life." 
" Now, what do you do with the passages bearing upon the 
death?" and I quoted the passages, "Without the shed- 
ding of blood there is no remission," and " He Himself, 
bore our own sins by His own body on the tree," and 
asked him what he did with them, for instance. " Never 
preach on them at all." I quoted a number of passages 
more, and he gave me the same answer. " Well, what do 
you preach?" I finally asked. "Moral essays," he 
replied. Said I, " Did you ever know anybody to be 
saved by that kind of thing — did you ever convert anybody 
by them ? " " I never aimed at that kind of conversion ■ I 
mean to get men to heaven by culture — by refinement." 
"Well," said I, "if I didn't preach those texts, and only 
preached culture, the whole thing would be a sham." 
" And it is a sham to me," was his reply. I tell you the 
moment a man breaks away from this doctrine of blood, 
religion becomes a sham, because the whole teaching of 
this book is of one story, and this is that Christ came into 
the world, and died for our sins. 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, II. 10 g 

I want to call your attention to the 19th chapter of John, 
and the thirty-fourth verse : " But one of the soldiers with 
a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out 
blood and water." Came there out blood and water. Now, 
it was prophesied years before, that there should open a 
fountain, which should wash away sin and uncleanness, 
and it seems that this fountain was opened here by the 
spear of the soldier, and out of the fountain came blood 
and water. It was the breaking of the crown of hell, and 
the giving of the crown to heaven. When the Roman 
soldier drove out the blood, out came the water, and it 
touched that spear, and it was not long before Christ had 
that Roman government. It is a throne and a footstool 
now, and by and by it will sway the earth from pole to 
pole. This^arth has been redeemed by the blessed blood 
of Christ. ^?51Uays in his first Epistle i. 18 : " Foras- 
much as ye know that we were not redeemed by corrupti- 
ble things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation 
received by tradition from your fathers ; but with the 
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, 
and without spot." You are not redeemed by such corrupt- 
ible things as gold or silver, but by the precious blood of 
the Lamb — " the precious blood of Christ — as of a lamb 
without blemish." If silver and gold could have redeem- 
ed us, it would have been the easiest thing to have made 
a pile of gold ten thousand times larger than the bulk of 
the earth. Why, the poorest thing is gold in heaven. 
But gold couldn't do it. As I said last night, the law had 
been broken, and the penalty of death had come upon us, 
and it required life to redeem us. Now, it says we shall 
be redeemed. My friends, redemption is to me one of 
the most precious treasures in the word of God — to think 
that Christ has bought me by his blood. I am no longer 
my own, I am His. He has ransomed me. 

A friend of mine once told me that he was going out 



IIO GREAT JOY. 

from Dublin one day, and met a boy who had one of those 
English sparrows in his hand. It was frightened, and just 
seemed to sit as if it pined for liberty, but the boy held it 
so tight that it could not get away. The boy's strength 
was too much for the bird. My friend said, " Open your 
hand and let the bird go. You will never tame him, be is 
wild." But the boy replied, " Faith an' I'll not ; I've 
been a whole hour trying to catch him, an' now I've got 
him, I'm going to keep him." So the man took out his 
purse and asked the boy if he would sell it. A bargain 
was made, and the sparrow was transferred to the man's 
hand. He opened his hand, and at first it did not seem 
to realize it had liberty, but by and by it flew away, and as 
it went it chirped, as much as to say, " You have redeem- 
ed me." And so Christ has come down and offered to 
redeem us and give us liberty when we were bound with 
sin. Satan was stronger than we were. He has had 
6,000 years' experience. He did not come to buy us 
from Satan, but from the penalty of our sin. 

Another thought about the blood. It makes us all one. 
The blood brings us into one family, into the house- 
hold of faith. I remember during the war Dr. Kirk, one 
of the most eloquent men I ever heard, was speaking in 
Boston. At that time, you recollect, there was a good 
deal said about the Irish and the black man, and what an 
amount of talk about the war of races. He said while 
preaching one night : " I saw a poor Irishman and a black 
man and an Englishman, and the blood of Christ came 
down and fell upon them and made them one." My friends, 
it brings nationalities together, it brings those scattered 
with the seeds of discord together and makes them one. 
Let us turn to Acts xvii. 26, and we read: "And hath 
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all 
the face of the earth, and hath determined the times be- 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, II II; 

fore appointed and the bounds of their habitation." That's 
what the blood of Christ does. It just makes us one. I 
can tell a man that has been redeemed by the blood. They 
speak all the same language. I don't require to be in his 
company ten minutes before I can tell whether or not he 
has been redeemed. They have only one language, and' 
you can tell when they speak whether they are outside the 
blood or sheltered by it. The blood has two voices — one 
is for salvation and the other is for condemnation. The blood 
to-night cries out for my salvation or for my condemnation. 
If we are sheltered behind the blood, it cries for our salva- 
tion, for we see in Galatians : " It cries for our peace." 
There is no peace till a man has been sheltered by that 
blood. 

Again, I would like to call your attention to the twenty- 
sixth chapter of Matthew, twenty-eighth verse, where we 
find Christ speaking of His blood : " For this is My 
blood of the New Testament, which is shed for the re- 
mission of sins." This blood was " shed for the remission 
of sins." Then in Hebrews ninth and twenty-second, where 
it says, " Without the shedding of blood is no remission of 
sins." Men don't realize that this is God's plan of salva- 
tion. Said a man to me last night after the meeting : 
" Why, God has got a plan to save us." Certainly He has. 
You must be saved by God's plan. It was love that 
prompted God to send His son to save us and shed His 
blood. That was the plan. And without the blood what 
hope have you? There is not a sin from your childhood — 
from your cradle — up till now that can be forgiven, unless 
by the blood. Let us take God at his word : " Without the 
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, with- 
out the blood, no remission whatever. I don't see 
how a man can fail to comprehend this. That's what 
Christ died for ; that's what Christ died on Calvary for. 
If a man makes light of that blood what hope has he ? 



II2 GREAT JOY. 

How are you going to get into the kingdom of God ? You 
cannot join in the song of the saints if you don't go into 
heaven that way. You cannot sing the song of redemption. 
If you did I suppose you would be off in some corner with 
a harp of your own, and singing, " I saved myself ; I saved 
myself." You can't get in that way. You must accept 
the plan of redemption and come in through it. " He 
that climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a 
robber." 

Then, in the tenth chapter of Hebrews, we find Paul, if 
he wrote this, just taking up the very thought : " He that 
despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three 
witnesses." You know when a man made light of the law 
under the Mosaic dispensation, whenever two witnesses 
came into court and swore that he hadn't kept the law, 
they just took him out and stoned him to death. Take up 
the next verse : " Of how much surer punishment suppose 
ye shall be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the 
Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant 
wherewith He was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath 
done despite unto the spirit of grace." My friends, what 
hope is there if a man tramples the blood of Christ under 
his foot, if he says, " I will have nothing to do with that 
blood ? " I ask in all candor what mercy is there ? What 
hope has he if he " hath trodden under foot the Son of 
God and hath counted the blood of: the covenant where- 
with He was sanctified an unholy thing?" This is the 
only way to get to heaven, no other way. Turn again to 
the eleventh verse of the same chapter and we see : " But 
the Man after He had offered one sacrifice for sin " — mark 
that, He had settled the question of sin — " forever, sat 
down on the right hand of God. The high priests could 
never sit down. Their work was never done ; but our 
High Priest hath put sin away by one sacrifice and then 
ascended to God. And in this same chapter of Hebrews 



THE 'PRECIOUS BLOOD, II 113 

we see again : " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to 
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and 
living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the 
vail, that is to say, flesh, and having a High Priest over the 
home of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full 
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil 
conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let 
us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, 
for He is faithful that promised." I want to call your 
attention to the twentieth verse more particularly — " by a 
new and living way." Now Christ has opened a new and 
a living way. We cannot get to heaven by our own deeds 
now. He has opened " a new and a living way." We 
don't need a high priest to go once a year and pray God. 
Thank God we are all kings and all priests. We can go 
straight to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. When Christ died that temple was rent from the top 
to the bottom — not from the bottom to the top — and every 
poor son of Adam can walk right in and worship — right 
into the presence of God, if he only comes by the way of 
the blood. Yes, thank God, He has opened a new and a 
living way whereby we can come to Him. Let us thank 
God for the new and the living way. We don't need any 
bishop, we don't need any pope, we don't need any priest 
or prophet now ■ but every one can be made kings and 
priests, and we can come through this living way to His 
presence and ask Him to take away our sins. There's not 
a man in this assemblage but can come to Him to-night. 

There's a good deal about the blood in Hebrews that 
I would like to bring up ; time passes^ and I have just to 
fly through the subject. Now I don't know any doctrine I 
have preached that has been talked about more than the 
doctrine of blood. Why, the moment Satan gets a man 
to leave out this doctrine of blood, he has gained all he 
wants. It is the most pernicious idea to leave it out. A 
8 



1 1 4 GREAT JOY. 

man may be a brilliant preacher, may have a brilliant 
intellect, and may have large crowds of people, but if 
he leaves this out, no one will be blest under his 
ministry, no one will be born in God's kingdom. If a 
man leaves out this blood he may as well go and 
whistle in the streets, and try to convert people that way, 
for all the good he will do in saving souls. It is said that 
old Dr. Alexander, of Princeton College, when a young 
student used to start out to preach, always gave him a 
piece of advice. The old man would stand with his gray 
locks and his venerable face and say : "Young man, make 
much of the blood in your ministry." Now, I have travelled 
considerable during the past few years, and never met a 
minister who made much of the blood and much of the 
atonement but God had blessed his ministry, and souls 
were born into the light by it. But a man who leaves it 
out the moment he goes, his church falls to pieces like a 
rope of sand, and his preaching has been barren of good 
result. And so if you find a man preaching who has 
covered up this doctrine of blood, don't sit under his 
ministry, I don't care what denomination he belongs to, get 
out of it. Fly from it as those who flew from Sodom. 
Never mind how you get out of it — leave it. It is a 
whitened sepulcher. There is no life if they don't preach 
the blood. It is the only way we've got to conquer Satan ; 
the only way we can enter heaven, and we cannot get there 
unless we have washed our robes in the blood of. the 
Lamb. If we expect to conquer we must be first washed 
by that blood. A man who has not realized what the 
blood has done for him has not the token of salvation. It 
is told of Julian the apostate, that while he was fighting 
he received an arrow in his side. He pulled it out, and 
taking a handful of blood threw it into the air, and cried, 
"Galilean, Galilean, thou hast conquered!" Yes, the 
Galilean is going to conquer, and you must bear in mind 



THE PRECIO US BL OB, II 1 1 5 

if you don't accept the blood — don't submit to it and let it 
cleanse you — the rock will fall on you, because the decree 
of Heaven is that every knee will bow to the will of heaven. 
The blood is a call of mercy now. He wants you to come 
— He beseeches you to accept and be saved. 

I heard of an old minister who had preached the gospel 
for fifty years faithfully. "Ah!" many here will say, "I 
wish I was as safe to go to heaven as he." When he was 
reaching his end he asked that his Bible should be brought 
to him. His eyes were growing dim in death, and he said 
to one of those about him, " I wish you would turn to the 
first epistle of John, i., 7," and when it was found, the old 
man put his dying finger on the passage where it says : 
{ * But if we walk in the light as He is in light we have 
followship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ 
His Son, cleanseth from all sin," and he said, " I die in the 
hope of that." It was the blood in his ministry that 
cleansed him. And so it is the only way by which our 
sins can be washed away. Why, there was a question 
once asked in heaven when a great crowd were gathering 
there, " Who are those ? " and the answer was : " They are 
those who have come by great tribulation and have been 
washed by the blood of the Lamb." 

Now, the question here to-night is, what are you going 
to do with that blood ? We have had it for two nights, and 
before I close I would like to, ask you, what are you going 
to do about it ? You must do either of two things — take it 
or reject it. Trample it under foot or cleanse your sins by 
it. I heard of a lady who told a servant to cook a lamb. 
She told him how to do it up and all about it, but she 
didn't tell him what to do with the blood. So he went to 
her and asked, "What are you going to do with the blood 
of the lamb ? " She had been under conviction for some 
time, and such a question went like an arrow to her soul. 
She went to her room and felt uneasy, and the question 



„6 GREAT JOY. 

kept continually coming to her, " What are you going to do 
with the blood of the lamb," and before morning she was 
on her knees asking for the mercy of the blood of the 
Lamb. 

Now the most solemn truth in the gospel is that the 
only thing He left down here is His blood. His body and 
bones He took away, but He left His blood on Calvary. 
There is either of two things we must do. One is to send 
back the message to heaven that we don't want the blood 
of Christ to cleanse us of our sin, or else accept it. Why* 
when we come to our dying hour the blood will be worth 
more than all the kingdoms of the world to us. Can you 
afford to turn your back upon it and make light of it? Dr. 
King, when the war was going on, went down to the field 
with the Christian Commission. He used to go among 
the soldiers, and during one of his visits he heard a man 
cry, "Blood! blood! blood!" He thought that, as the man 
had just been taken off the battle-field, the scene of carnage 
and blood was still upon his mind. The Doctor went to 
him, and tried to talk to the man about Christ, and 
to divert his mind from the scenes of the field. "Ah, 
Doctor," said the man, feebly : " I was not thinking of the 
battle-field, but of the blood of Christ ; " and he whispered 
the word " blood " once more and was gone. 

Dear friends, do you want all your sins washed away 
from you ? It was shed for the remission of sins, and 
without the shedding of blood there would be no remission. 
There is bloqji on the mercy-seat to-night. " I am not 
looking to your sins now," God says, " but come and 
press in, press in and receive remission." Thank God, 
the blood is still on the mercy-seat. It is there, and He 
beseeches you to accept it. What more can He do for 
your salvation ? Now, my friends don't go out of this 
Tabernacle laughing and scoffing at the precious offering 
made to you, but just bow your head now and lift up your 



THE PRECIOUS BLOOD, II. n 7 

voice, "0 God of heaven, may the blood of Thy Son 
cleanse me from all sin." The blood is sufficient 

Some years ago I was journeying to the Pacific coast, 
and nearly every stage-driver I met was talking about a 
prominent stage-driver who had just died. You know that 
in driving over these rocky roads they depend a good deal 
upon the brake. This poor man, when he was dying, was 
heard to say : " I am on the down grade and cannot keep 
the brake." Just about that time one of the most faithful 
men of God, Alfred Coopman, passed away. His wife 
and friends gathered around his death-bed, and when his 
last moments arrived, it seemed as if heaven had opened 
before him, as with a shout he cried, " I am sweeping 
through the gates washed by the blood of the Lamb." 
What a comfort this must have been to his friends : what a 
comfort it must have been to him, the blood of the atone- 
ment in his last hours. 

My friends, if you want a glorious end like the end of 
that sainted man you must come to the blood of Christ. 
Let us bow our heads in prayer : let us have a few moments 
of silent prayer, and let us ask the Lord to let us see this 
great truth. 



EXCUSES, I. 



Mr. Moody then said the text he would take was to be 
found in the chapter read, the nineteenth verse : " / pray 
thee have me excused." Christ had been invited to dine 
with a rich Pharisee, and it seemed as though this man 
had gathered his friends together in a kind of conspiracy 
to catch Christ. They watched Him. A man who had 
had dropsy was placed before Jesus, as though they wanted 
to see what He would do. Christ read their hearts, and 
so before He healed the man, He asked them if it was 
lawful to heal on the Sabbath day. But they didn't want 
to answer, for fear they'd betray themselves, and so they 
held their peace. Then Christ put the question to them 
in another way, and asked them if any of them had an ox 
or an ass fall into a pit, should he not straightway pull him 
out on the Sabbath day, and then he healed the man, as 
the Pharisees and lawyers weren't able to answer Him. 
Then He told them about the feast, and told them to be 
humble. When a man prepares a feast, men rush in, but 
when God prepares one they all begin to make excuses, 
and don't want to go. The first excuse was that made by 
Adam, "the woman Thou gavest me, she gave me to eat." 
These men that excused themselves made manufactured 
excuses ; they didn't really have any. The drunkard, the 
libertine, the business man, the citizen, the harlot, all had 
their excuses. If God were to take men at their word 
about these excuses, and swept every one into his grave 
who had an excuse, there would be a very small congrega- 
tion in the Tabernacle next Sunday, there would be little 



EXCUSES, I. 119 

business in Chicago, and in a few weeks the grass would 
be growing on these busy streets. Every man who was 
nursing a sin had an excuse, as though God had asked 
them to go into a plague-stricken city, or a hospital, or to 
hear a dry lecture, or something repelling and objectiona- 
ble, something that wasn't for their greatest good. 

Take the excuses. There wasn't one that wasn't a lie. 
The devil made them all ; and if the sinner hadn't one 
already the devil was there at his elbow to suggest one, 
about the truth of the Bible, or something of that sort. 
One of the excuses mentioned was that the man invited 
had bought a piece of ground, and had to look at it. 
Real estate and corner lots were keeping a good many 
men out of God's kingdom. It was a lie to say that he 
had to go and see it then, for he ought to have looked at 
it before he bought it. Then the next man said he'd 
bought some oxen, and must prove them. That was an- 
other lie ; for if he hadn't proved them before he bought 
them he ought to have done, and could have done it after 
the supper just as well as before it. But the third man 
had the silliest, the worst, excuse of ail ; he said he had 
married a wife, and couldn't come. Why didn't he bring 
her with him ? She'd have liked the supper just as well as 
he would, and would have enjoyed a supper, as almost any- 
young bride would. 

These seemed to be foolish excuses, but they were not 
any more so than the excuses of to-day. Indeed, the ex- 
cuses of men are getting worse and worse all the time. 
They say they can't believe the Bible ; it's so mysterious, 
Well, what of it ? Infidels, skeptics, pantheists, deists, 
said they didn't believe the Bible. Had they ever used 
it ? Did they read it as carefully as they read any other 
book. This was their excuse. If everybody could under- 
stand everything the Bible said it wouldn't be God's book ; 
if Christians, if theologians had studied it for forty, fifty, 



I20 GREAT JOY. 

sixty years, and then only began to understand it, how 
could a man expect to understand it by one reading ? A 
child the first day at school couldn't even know the alpha- 
bet, and yet it wasn't a sign that it was a poor school 
because he didn't learn the first day all about grammar, 
arithmetic, and geometry. Another said God was a hard 
master. No j that was one of Satan's lies. The devil's 
the hard master. In the Tombs in New York there is 
over the door the remark, " The way of the transgressor 
is hard." God's yoke is easy, his burden light. Ask 
prisoners, ask gamblers, ask sinners, if Satan's yoke is 
easy. It's the hardest of all. He asked the Christians in 
the audience if God was a hard master. (Cries — No ! 
No !) That, said Mr. Moody, is pretty faint. Is God a 
hard master, Christians ? (Cries all over the hall — No ! 
No ! No !) God's service a hard one ! How will that 
sound in the judgment ! Many said it wasn't that, but 
there is such a struggle. Wasn't all life a struggle ? Some 
said they were wicked. Those are just the kind Jesus 
came to save. They weren't too wicked to be saved. 
They were so worldly-minded, so hard-hearted ; that was 
another falsehood. Look at what God did for Bunyan 
and John Newton, and many others who were the wickedest, 
and even the thief on the cross. God is already recon- 
ciled ; He doesn't need the sinner to be reconciled to Him. 
The Lord prepares the sinner. A touching story was told 
of an English father and son, who had become estranged, 
but who were united over the death-bed of the wife and 
mother. The father was stern, but was reconciled by the 
prayers of the dying parent. And this was so with God : 
the sinner had left Him, God was removed from him, but 
God and the sinner were brought near by the death of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

This afternoon I chose for my text the fourteenth verse 
of the fourteenth chapter of Luke, and you will remember 



EXCUSES, I. 121 

I took up certain of the excuses of the present day in re- 
gard to accepting Christ. One of these excuses I said 
was that Christ was a hard master • it was a very difficult 
thing to become a Christian, and the other was that Christ 
would not receive them. Now, I just want to take up 
where I left off, and notice the excuses we hear in the 
inquiry room, in the streets of Chicago — everywhere. I 
said this afternoon you were not invited when asked to 
come to Christ to a dry lecture on a disagreeable subject, 
but to a marriage feast. The Lord has said, " Blessed is 
he who shall be at the marriage supper of the Lord." I 
have missed a good many appointments in my life, but 
there is one I will not miss. I would rather be at the 
marriage feast than have the whole world rolled at my 
feet. I want to be there and sit down with Isaac and 
Jacob and Abraham at that supper. It is an invitation for 
joy and gladness that comes from the King of Kings, from 
the Lord of Glory, to evGry man and woman in this assem- 
bly — the invitation to be at the marriage supper of the 
Lamb. It is not a personal invitation, but a universal 
one — " Go out into the highways and hedges and compel 
them to come in, that my house may be filled." Bid them 
come, " the poor and the maimed and the halt and the 
blind," to the marriage feast, prepared at great expense 
by our blessed Redeemer. I said in the afternoon that 
people began to make excuses very early in the history of 
Christianity, and they are still at it. Nineteen hundred 
years have rolled away and still there are excuses. One 
of the excuses that we very often hear people giving, is 
that they don't want to become Christians because it will 
make them gloomy — they will have to put on long faces 
and button their coats up, cut off all joy and walk through 
the world till they get to heaven, where they will have 
pleasure for evermore. We look forward to that happy 
future, but thank God, we have some pleasure here. In- 



122 GREAT JOY. 

deed, no man in the world should be so happy as a man 
of God. It is one continual source of gladness. He can 
look up and say, " God is my father," " Christ is my 
Saviour, and the Church is my mother." All who think 
otherwise than that a Christian's life is one of unceasing 
joy are deceiving themselves. I was going by a saloon 
the other day and saw a sign, " Drink and be merry." 
Poor, blind, deluded fellows, if they think this will make 
them merry. If you want to be merry you must come to 
the living fountain that bursts from the throne of God ; 
then you will have true pleasure. A man away from God 
cannot have true pleasure. He is continually thirsting 
for something he cannot get — thirsting for something that 
can quench his thirst, and he cannot get it until he comes 
to the living fountain. My friends, that is just another 
wile of the devil to keep men from grace. It is false. 
The more a man is lifted up to heaven the more joy and 
peace and gladness he has. He is lifted away from gloom. 
Look at a man on his way to execution. Suppose I run 
up to him, holding out my hand, and say : " There is a 
pardon that has been signed by the Governor," and I give 
it him. Would he be gloomy and joyless ? That is Christ. 
He comes down with a pardon to us poor men and women 
on our way to execution. Yonder is a man starving. I 
go to him and give him bread. Is that going to make him 
gloomy ? A poor man comes along crying with thirst, and 
I give him a glass of ice water ; would that make him 
gloomy ? That is what Christ is doing for us. He has a 
well of living "water, and He asks every thirsty soul to 
drink freely. Don't you believe for a moment that Chris- 
tianity is going to make you gloomy. 

I remember when I was a boy I thought I would wait 
till I died and then become a Christian. I thought if I 
had the consumption, or some lingering disease, I would 
have plenty of time to become one, and in the mean time I 



EXCUSES, I. 



123 



would enjoy the best of the pleasures of the world. My 
frienSs, I was at that time under the power of the devil. 
The idea that a man has more pleasure away from church 
is one of the devil's lies. Do not believe it, but accept of 
this universal invitation to the marriage feast. 



EXCUSES, II. 



I can imagine some men saying " Mr. Moody has not 
touched my case at all. That is not the reason why I 
won't accept Christ. I don't know if I am one of the 
elect." How often am I met with this excuse — how often 
do I hear it in the inquiry room ! How many men fold 
their arms and say, " If I am one of the elect I will be saved, 
and if I ain't I won't. No use of your bothering about it." 
Why don't some of those merchants say, " If God is going 
to make me a successful merchant in Chicago I will be one 
whether I like it or not, and if he hasn't I won't." If you 
are sick, and a doctor prescribes for you, don't take the 
medicine ; throw it out of the door ; it don't matter, for if God 
has decreed you are going to die you will, and if he hasn't 
you will get better. If you use that argument you may as 
well not walk home from this tabernacle. If God has said 
you'll get home, you'll get — you'll fly through the air, if 
you have been elected to go home. These illustrations are 
just the same as the excuse. You cannot go up there and 
give that excuse. The water of life is offered freely to 
every one. No unconverted man in the wide, wide world 
has anything to do with the doctrine of election any more 
than I have to do with the government of China. That 
epistle of Paul was written to Godly men. Suppose I pick 
up a letter and open it, and it tells me about the death of 
my wife. Dear me — my wife dead. But I look on the 
other side of the letter and find that it is directed to another 
man. And so a great many people take Paul's letter to the 
churches and take it as a personal letter. Tins is what 



EXCUSES, II 125 

you have to take up : " Whosoever will, let him drink of 
the water of life freely." He came down sixty years after 
his resurrection and said to John — put it so broad that no 
one will mistake it ; put it so broad that no one in Chicago 
can be stumbling over it, so that all men may see it plain- 
ly — « Whosoever will, let him drink of the water of life 
freely." If you will, you will \ if you won't, you won't. Do 
you think that God will come down here to give you salva- 
tion without giving you the power to take it, and then con- 
demn you to eternity for not taking it ? With the gift comes ■ 
the power, and you can take it and live if you will. Don't 
stumble over election any more. You have to deal with 
that broad proclamation : " Whosoever will, let him drink 
of the waters of life freely." I can imagine some one in 
the gallery clear up there saying, " I never have bothered 
my head about election, I don't believe men are gloomy 
when they become Christians. If I was alone I would tell 
you *my reason, but I do not like to get up in this large 
assemblage and talk here. The fact is there are hypocrites 
in the churches. I know a man, a prominent man in the 
church, who cheated me out of twenty-five dollars. " I 
won't accept this invitation because of those hypocrites in 
the churches." My friend, you will find very few there if 
you get to heaven. There won't be a hypocrite in the next 
world, and if you don't want to be associated with hypo- 
crites in the next world, you will take this invitation. Why, 
you will find hypocrites everywhere. One of the apostles 
was himself the very prince of hypocrites, but he didn't get 
to heaven. You will find plenty of hypocrites in the church. 
They have been there for the last eighteen hundred years, 
and will probably remain there. But what is that to you ? 
This is an individual matter between you and your God. 
Is it because there are hypocrites that you are not going 
to accept the invitation ? 

Ah, well, Mr. Moody, that is not my case. I am a busi- 



126 ' GREAT JOY. 

ness man, and I have no time. Since the Chicago fire I 
have had as much as I could attend to in recovering what 
I lost. I believe if I stood at the door and asked any one 
who went out to accept the invitation, I believe hundreds 
of you would say, " Mr. Moody, you will have to excuse me 
to-night ; time is very precious with me, and you'll have 
to excuse me." What have you been doing the lasttwenty, 
thirty, forty, fifty years that you haven't had a moment to 
devote to the acceptance of the invitation ? That is the 
cry of the world to-day : " Time is precious ; business 
must be attended to, and we have no time to spare." Some 
of you will say, "I cannot wait ; I have to go home and 
put the children to bed ; this is more important." My 
friends, to accept this invitation is more important than 
anything else in this world. There is nothing in the world 
that is so important as the question of accepting the invi- 
tation. How many mechanics in this building have spent 
five years learning their trade, in order to support their 
families and support themselves a few years — forty or fifty 
years at the longest? How many professional men have 
toiled and worked hard for years to get such an education 
that they might go out to the world and cope with it, and 
during all these years have not had a minute to seek their 
salvation ? Is that a legitimate excuse ? Tell Him to-night 
that you haven't time or let this be the night — the hour — 
cost you what it will, when you shall say, " By the grace of 
God, I will accept the invitation and press up to the mar 
riage supper of the Lamb." 

" Oh, but that is not my case," says another, " I have 
time. If I thought I could become a Christian I would sit 
here all night and let business and everything else go, and 
press into the kingdom of God. I am not fit to become a 
Christian, that's the trouble with me." He says : " Go 
into the highways and hedges," and "bring in hither the 
poor, and the maimed, and the halt and the blind," — just 



EXCUSES, II I2 y 

invite them all, without distinction of sect or creed, station 
or nationality ; never mind whether they are rich or poor. 
If the Lord don't complain about your fitness, you shouldn't 
look to see if you have the right kind of clothes. I had to 
notice during the war, when enlisting was going on, some- 
times a man would come up with a nice silk hat on, patent 
leather boots, nice kid gloves, and a fine suit of clothes, 
which, probably, cost him one hundred dollars ; perhaps 
the next man who came along would be a hod-carrier, 
dressed in the poorest kind of clothes. Both had to strip 
alike and put on the regimental uniform. So when you 
come and say you ain't fit, haven't got good clothes, 
haven't got righteousness enough, remember that He will 
furnish you with the uniform of heaven, and you will be set 
down at the marriage feast of the Lamb. I don't care how 
black and vile your heart may be, only accept the invitation 
of Jesus Christ and He will make you fit to sit down with 
the rest at that feast. How many are continually crying 
out, " I am too bad ; no use of me trying to become a 
Christian." This is the way the devil works. Sometimes 
he will say to a man, " You don't want to be saved ; you're 
good enough already," and he will point to some black- 
hearted hypocrite and say : " Look at him and see how 
you appear in comparison ; you are far better than he is." 
But by and by the man gets a glimpse of the blackness of 
his heart, and his conscience troubles him. Then says the 
devil, " You are too bad to be saved ; the Lord won't save 
such as you ; you are too vile ; you must get better before 
you try to get God to save you." And so men try to make 
themselves better, and instead get worse all the time. The 
gospel bids you come as you are. Seek first the kingdom 
of heaven — make no delay ; come just as you are. I heard 
of an artist who wanted to get a man to sit for a painting 
of the prodigal son. He went down to the almshouses and 
the prisons, but couldn't get one. Going through the 



128 GREAT JOY. 

streets one day he found a poor wretched man, a beggar, 
coming along, and he asked him if he would sit for the 
study. He said he would. A bargain was made, and the 
artist gave him his address. The time for the appointment 
arrived, and the beggar duly appeared and said to the artist : 
" I have come to keep that appointment which I made with 
you." " An appointment with me ? " replied the artist ; 
" you are mistaken ; I have an appointment with a beggar 
to-day." " Well," said the man,," I am that beggar, but I 
thought I would put on a new suit of clothes before I came 
to see you." " I don't want you," was the artist's reply, 
" I want a beggar." And so a great many people come to 
God with their self-righteousness, instead of coming in their 
raggedness. Why, some one has said, " It is only the 
ragged sinners that open God's wardrobe. If you want to 
start out to get a pair of shoes from a passer-by you would 
start out barefooted, wouldn't you ? I remember a boy to 
whom I gave a pair of boots, and I found him shortly after 
in his bare feet again. I asked him what he had done with 
them, and he replied that when he was dressed up it spoiled 
his business ; when he was dressed up no one would give 
him anything. By keeping his feet naked he got as many 
as five pairs of boots a day. (Laughter.) So if you want 
to come to God, don't dress yourself up. It is the naked 
sinners God wants to save. Come to Him after you have 
cast off your self-righteousness and the Son of God will 
receive you. 

I remember some years ago of a man who had gone to 
sea. He led a wild, reckless life. When his mother was 
alive she was a praying mother. Ah, how many men have 
been saved by their mothers after they have gone up to 
heaven ; and perhaps her influence made him think some- 
times. When at sea a desire of leading a better life came 
over him, and when he got on shore he thought he would 
join the Free Masons. He made application, but, upon 



EXCUSES, II. 12 g 

investigation, his character proved he was only a drunken 
sailor, and he was black-balled. He next thought of join- 
ing the Odd Fellows, and applied, but his application met 
with a like result. While he was walking up Fulton street 
one day a little tract was given him — an invitation to the 
prayer meeting. He came, and Christ received him. I 
remember him getting up in the meeting, and telling how 
the Free Masons had black-balled him, how the Odd 
Fellows had black-balled him, and how Christ had re- 
ceived him as he was. A great many orders and socie- 
ties will not receive you, but I tell you He will receive 
you, vile as you are — He, the Saviour of sinners — He, the 
redeemer of the lost world — He bids you come just as you 
are. 

Ah, but there is another voice coming down from the 
gallery yonder : " I have intellectual difficulties ; I cannot 
believe." A man came to me some time ago, and said : 
" I cannot." " Cannot what ? " " Well," said he, " I can- 
not believe." " Who ? " " Well," he repeated, " I cannot 
believe." "Who?" I -asked. " Well I can't believe my- 
self." "Well, you don't want to." [Laughter.] Make 
yourself out false every time, but believe in the truth of 
Christ. If a man says to me : " Mr. Moody, you have lied 
to me ; you have dealt falsely with me," it may be so, 
but no man on the face of the earth can ever say that God 
ever dealt unfairly, or that He lied to him. If God says a 
thing, it is true. We don't ask you to believe in any man 
on the face of the earth, but we ask you to believe in Jesus 
Christ, who never lied — who never deceived anyone. If 
a man says he cannot believe Him, he says what is untrue. 

" Ah, well, all those excuses don't apply to me," says 
another; " I can't feel." That is the very last excuse. 
When a man comes with the excuse, he is getting pretty 
near to the Lord. We are having a body of men in Eng- 
land giving a new translation of the Scriptures. I think 

9 



I3 GREAT JOY. 

we should get them to put in a passage relating to feeling. 
With some people it is feel, feel, feel all the time. What 
kind of feeling have you got? Have you got a desire to 
be saved — have you got a desire to be present at the mar- 
riage supper ? Suppose a gentleman asked me to dinner. 
I say, " I will see how I feel." " Sick ? " he might ask. 
" No ; it depends on how I feel." That is not the ques- 
tion — it is whether I will accept the invitation or not. 
The question with ,us is, W T ill we accept salvation — will 
you believe ? There is not a word about feelings in the 
Scriptures. When you come to your end, and you know 
that in a few days you will be in the presence of the Judge 
of all the earth, you will remember this excuse about feel- 
ings. You will be saying, " I went up to the tabernacle, I 
remember, and I felt very good, and before the meeting 
was over I felt very bad, and I didn't feel I had the right 
kind of feeling to accept the invitation." Satan will then 
say, "I made you feel so." Suppose you build your hopes 
and fix yourself upon the Rock of Ages, the devil cannot 
come to you. Stand upon- the word of God, and the waves 
of unbelief cannot touch you; the waves of persecution 
cannot assail you ; the devil and all the fiends of hell 
cannot approach you if you only build your hopes upon 
God's word. Say, " I will trust Him, though He slay me 

— I will take God at His word." 

« 

I haven't exhausted all the excuses. Jf I had you would 
make more before to-morrow morning. What has to be 
done with all the excuses, is to bundle them all up and 
label them " Satan's lies." There is not an excuse but is 
a lie. When you stand at the throne of God no man can 
give an excuse. If you have got a good excuse, don't give 
it up for anything I have said ; don't give it up for any- 
thing your friend may have said. Take it up to the bar of 
God and state it to Him ; but if you have not got a good 
excuse — an excuse that will stand eternity — let it go to- 



EXCUSES, II I3 I 

night, and flee to the arms of a loving Saviour. It is easy- 
enough to excuse yourself to hell, but you cannot excuse 
yourself to heaven. If you want an excuse, Satan will 
always find one ready for you. Accept the invitation now, 
my friends. Let your scores be closed till you accept this 
invitation ; let your households go till you accept this invi- 
tation. Do not let the light come, do not eat, do not drink, 
till you accept the most important thing to you in this wide 
world. Will you stay to-night and accept this invitation ? 
Don't make light of it. I can imagine some of you say- 
ing, "I never get so low as to make light of religion." 
Suppose I got an invitation to dinner from a citizen of 
Chicago for to-morrow, and I don't answer it — I tear the 
invitation up. Would not that be making light of it? 
Suppose you pay no attention to the invitation to-night — is 
not that making light of it ? Would anyone here be willing 
to write out an excuse something like this : " The Taber- 
nacle, Oct. 29. To the King of Heaven : While sitting in 
the Tabernacle to-day, I received a very pressing invitation 
from one of your servants to sit at the marriage ceremony 
of the Son of God. I pray you have me excused." Is 
there a man or woman in this assembly would take their 
pen and write their name at the bottom of it ? Is there a 
man or woman whose right hand would not forget its cun- 
ning, and whose tongue would not cleave to their -mouth, 
if they were trying to do it ? Well, you are doing this if 
you get up and go right out after you have heard the invi- 
tation. Who will write this : " To the Lord of lords and 
King of Glory : While sitting in the Tabernacle this beau- 
tiful Sabbath evening, Oct. 29, 1876, I received a pressing 
invitation from one of your servants to be present at the 
marriage supper. I hasten to accept." Will anyone sign 
this ? Who will put their name to it ? Is there not a man 
or woman saying, down deep in their soul, " By the grace 
of God I will sign it; " " I will sign it by the grace of God, 



I 3 2 GREAT JOY. 

and will meet that sainted mother who has gone there ; " 
" I will sign and accept that invitation, and meet that 
loving wife or dear child." Are there not some here to- 
night who will accept that invitation ? 

I remember, while preaching in Glasgow, an incident 
occurred which I will relate. I had been preaching there 
several weeks, and the night was my last one, and I pleaded 
with them as I had never pleaded there before. I urged 
those people to meet me in that land. It is a very solemn 
thing to stand before a vast audience for the last time, and 
think you may never have another chance of asking them 
to come to Christ. I told them I would not have another 
opportunity, and urged them to accept, and just asked 
them to meet me at that marriage supper. At the conclu- 
sion, I soon saw a tall young lady coming into the inquiry 
room. She had scarcely come in when another tall young 
lady came in, and she went up to the first and put her arms 
round her and wept. Pretty soon another young lady came, 
and went up to the first two and just put her arms round 
them both. I went over to see what it was, and found 
that, although they had been sitting in different parts of 
the building, the sure arrow of conviction went down to 
their souls, and brought them to the inquiry room. Ano- 
ther young lady came down from the gallery, and said : 
" Mr. Moody, I want to become a Christian." I asked a 
young Christian to talk to her ; and when she went home 
that night about ten o'clock — her mother was sitting up for 
her — she said : " Mother, I have accepted the invitation 
to be present at the marriage supper of the Lamb." Her 
mother and father laid awake that night talking about the 
salvation of the child. That was Friday night, and next 
day (Saturday) she was unwell, and before long her sick- 
ness developed into scarlet fever, and a few days after I 
got this letter : — 



EXCUSES, II I33 

(t Mr. Moody — Dear Sir : It is now my painful duty to 
intimate you that the dear girl concerning whom I wrote 
to you on Monday, has been taken away from us by death. 
Her departure, however, has been signally softened to us, 
for she told us yesterday she was ' going home to be with 
Jesus ; ' and after giving messages to many, told us to let 
Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey know that she died a happy 
Christian. 

" My dear sir, let us have your prayer that consolation 
and needed resignation and strength may be continued to 
us, and that our two dear remaining little ones may be 
kept in health if the Lord wills. I repeated a line of the 
hymn, 

In the Christian's home in glory, 
There remains a land of rest, 

when she took it up at once, and tried to sing ' When the 
Saviour's gone before to fulfil my soul's request.' This was 
the last conscious thing she said. I should say that my 
dear girl also expressed a wish that the lady she conversed 
with on Friday evening, should also know that she died a 
happy Christian." 

When I heard this, I said to Mr. Sankey, " If we do no- 
thing else we have been paid for coming across the Atlan- 
tic. There is one soul we have saved, whom we will meet 
on the resurrection morn." 

Oh, my dear friends, are there not some here to-night 
who will decide this question ? Do accept this invitation ; 
let the sickness come, let sorrow come, you will be sure of 
meeting at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Blessed is 
he who shall be found at tnat marriage feast. 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, 1. 



I want to talk about the life of the prophet Daniel. 
The word means " God with him," not the public with him ; 
not his fellow men, but God. Therefore, he had to report 
himself to God, and hold himself responsible to Him. I 
do not know just what time Daniel went down to Babylon. 
I know that in the third year of King Jehoakim, Nebuchad- 
nezzar took 10,000 of the chief men of Jerusalem, and 
carried them captive down to Babylon. I am glad these 
chief men who stirred on the war, were given into the 
great king's hands. Unlike too many of the ringleaders 
in our great war, they got the punishment on their own 
heads. Among the captives were four young men. They 
had been converted doubtless under Jeremiah, the " weep- 
ing prophet " that God had sent to the children of Israel. 
Many had mocked at him when he lifted up his voice 
against their sins. They had laughed at his tears and 
told him to his face, as many say of us, that he was getting 
up a false excitement. But these four young men listen- 
ed, and had the backbone to come out for God. 

And now, after they were come to Babylon, the king 
said a number of the children should be educated, and 
ordered the same kind of meat and wine set before them 
that were used in his own palace, and that at the end of a 
year they should be brought before him. Daniel and his 
three friends were among these. Now no young man ever 
comes to the city but has great temptation cross his path 
as he enters it. And just at this turning-point in his life, 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, I. 135 

as in Daniel's, must lie the secret of his success. If you 
see success in statesmen, in lawyers, or men in any walk 
in life, you ask the secret of it, and you find it in this 
same time of youth. Jacob turned away from God, and 
David turned away from God, but only just in proportion 
as they had not fully and entirely given themselves up to 
Him when they were young men. Yes, that was the 
secret of this young man Daniel's success ; ,he took his 
stand with God right on his entering the gate of Babylon, 
and cried to God to keep him steadfast. And he needed 
to cry hard. A law of his and his nation's God, was that 
no man should eat meat offered to idols ; but now comes 
the king's first edict, that this young man should eat the 
meat he himself did. I do not think it took young Daniel 
long to make up his mind. The law of God forbade it, 
and he would not do it. " He purposed in his heart " — in 
his heart, mark that — that he would not defile himself. 
He did not do it in his head, but love in his heart prompt- 
ed him. If some Chicago Christians could have advised 
Daniel, they'd have said, "Don't you do it; don't set 
aside the meat ; that would be a species of Phariseeism. 
The moment you take your stand and say you won't eat it, 
you say in effect you are better than other people." That 
is the kind of talk too often to be heard now. Oh, yes, 
"When you are in Rome do as the Romans do; they 
would have insisted to the poor young captive that he 
might, and ought to, carry out the commandments of his 
God when he was in his own country, but not there where 
he was a poor slave ; he could not possibly carry along his 
religion down there to Babylon. Thank God, this young 
man said he would not eat, and ordering the meat taken 
away, got the eunuch to bring him pulse. And behold, 
when he came before the king, the eunuch's fears were 
gone, for the faces of Daniel and the rest of the dear boys 
were fairer and fatter than any that the king looked down 



I3 6 GREAT JOY. 

upon. They hadn't noses, like too many in our streets, as 
red as if they were just going to blossom. It is God's 
truth, and Daniel tested it, that cold water, with a clear 
conscience, is better than wine. 

And the king one day had a dream, and all the wise 
men were called. But they all said, We cannot interpret 
it ; it is too hard. The king in wrath, threatened them, 
and, still getting no answer, made an edict that all the 
wise men should be put to death. And the officers came 
to Daniel with the rest of the wise men, but Daniel was 
not afraid. I can imagine he prayed to God, falling low 
on his knees with his face to the earth, and asked him 
what to do ; and then he crawled into bed and slept like a 
child. We would hardly sleep well under such circum- 
stances. And in his sleep God told him the meaning of 
the dream. There must have been joy among the wise 
men that one of their number had found it, and that the 
king would save their lives. And he is brought before 
the king, and cries out, " O king, while thou did'st lie with 
thy head on thy pillow, thou did'st dream, and in thy 
dream thou sawest a great image." I can imagine at 
these opening words how the king's eyes flashed, and how 
he cried out with joy, " Yes, that is it, the whole thing 
comes back to me now." And then Daniel, in a death- 
like stillness, unfolded all the interpretation, and told the 
king that the golden head of the great image represented 
his own government. I suppose Babylon was the biggest 
city ever in the world. It was sixty miles around. Some 
writers put the walls from sixty-five to eighty-five feet high, 
and twenty-five feet wide ; four chariots could ride abreast 
on top of them. A street fifteen miles long divided the 
grand city, and hanging gardens in acres made the public 
parks. It was like Chicago — so flat that they had to 
resort to artificial mounds ; and, again like Chicago, the 
products of vast regions flowed right into and through it. 



THE PROP HE T DANIEL, I. i 3 7 

This great kingdom Daniel told the king was his own ; but 
he said a destroying kingdom should come, and afterward 
a third and fourth kingdom, when at the last, the God of 
Heaven should set up His kingdom. And Daniel .him- 
self lived to see the first overthrown, when the Medes and 
Persians came in, and centuries after came Alexander, and 
then the Romans. I believe in the literal fulfilment, so 
far, of Daniel's God-given words, and in the sure fulfil- 
ment of the final prophecy of the " stone cut out of the 
mountains without hands," that by and by shall grind the 
kingdoms of this world into dust, and bring in the kingdom 
of peace. Then will be the millennium, and Christ will 
sway His sceptre over all the earth. Well, the king was 
very much pleased. He gave him a place near the throne, 
and he became one of the chief men of the world, and all 
his three friends were put in high office. God had blessed 
them signally, and he blessed them still more, and that 
was perhaps a harder thing — in keeping them true to Him 
in their prosperity. Their faith and fortunes waxed strong 
together. 

Time went on, and now we reach a crisis indeed. "Neb- 
uchadnezzar, the king,'' we read, " made an image of gold, 
one hundred and ten feet high and nine feet wide." It 
was not gilded, but solid gold. When Babylon was pillaged 
the second time a single god was found in the temple that 
was worth between two and three million pounds sterling. 
The king's monstrous image was set up in the plains of 
Dura, near to the city. I suppose he wanted to please his 
kingly vanity by inaugurating a universal religion. When 
the time came for the dedication, I do not suppose Daniel 
was there. He was perhaps in Egypt or some other prov- 
ince, on affairs of the empire. Counsellors, satraps, high 
secretaries, and the princes of the people, were ordered to 
hasten to the dedication, and when they should hear the 
sound of the cornet, flute, and psaltery announce that the 



138 GREAT JOY. 

great idol was consecrated, they were to bow down and 
worship it. Perhaps they called the ceremony the unveil- 
ing of the monument, as we should say, but one command 
is certain,, that at the given signal all the people were to 
fall to the earth in worship. But in the law of God there 
is something against that: Thou shalt have none other 
gods but Me. God's law went right against the king's. 
Oh, would all of us have Daniel's three friends to do the 
right thing at any hazard ! Would none of us, without back- 
bone, have advised him to just bow down a little so that no 
one would notice it, or to merely bow down but not wor- 
ship it ! The hour came, and Daniel's friends refused to 
bow down. They refused utterly to bend the knee to a 
god of gold. How many cry out in this city, " Give me 
gold, give me money, and I will do anything." Such may 
think that men in Nebuchadnezzar's time should not bow 
down to a golden idol, but they themselves ar~ every day 
doing just that very thing. Money is their golden image, 
or position, or golden ambition. Well, the informers came 
to the king, and told him that Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abednego had stood with unbended knee, and straightway 
they were hurried before him, the old king speechless with 
rage, and gesturing his commands. I can imagine that one 
last chance was given them, after the king finally regained 
his voice, and that one of them, probably Meschach, spoke 
up in respectful but firm voice, that they must obey God 
rather than man. At once the raging king cried out : 
" What is your God that He can deliver you out of our 
hands ? " And in the same breath screamed a command 
to bind them hand and foot and cast them into the fiery 
furnace, and make it seven times hotter than ever. The 
command was instantly executed, and the flames leaped out 
from the door and consumed the officers who cast them in. 
But Jesus was with His servants as the flames wreathed 
about them, and soon word was brought to the king that 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, I. I39 

four men walked about in the flames. Yes, they walked 
there with Jesus — they didn't run — as in a green pasture 
and beside still waters. And directly the King rushed up 
and cried, " Ye sons of the living God, come forth." And 
behold, even the hair of their heads was not singed. Then 
made the King a royal edict, that all in his realm should 
reverence the God of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. 

These glorious heroes braved even death because God 
was with them. Oh, friends, we want to be Christians 
with the same backbone, men and women who stand up 
for the right, and never mind what the world may say. I 
believe, before God, there would be ten thousand conver- 
sions in Chicago in the next twenty-four hours had we only 
a perfect consecration. God grant it us out of the abund 
ance of His grace. I cannot go on now, but will finish 
about Daniel next Sunday morning. Let us pray. 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, II. 



Last Sunday morning, we got to the second dream of 
King Nebuchadnezzar. This morning we will just take 
up where we broke off. The king had a dream, and 
he was greatly troubled. This time the particulars of 
the dream had not gone from him. They stood out 
vivid and clear in his mind as he sent out to fetch the 
wise men, and called to them to give him the interpreta- 
tion. But they cannot give it. When he had his first 
dream he had summoned these same soothsayers, but they 
had stood silent. And now they stand silent again as the 
second dream is told them ; they cannot interpret it. Then 
once again he sends for the Prophet Daniel, that he had 
named after one of his gods, Belteshazzar. And the young 
prophet comes before the king, and as quick as the king 
sees him he feels sure that he will now get the meaning. 
Calling out from his throne, he tells how he had dreamed 
a dream, wherein he saw a tree in the midst of the earth, 
with branches that reached to heaven, and the sight thereof 
to the ends of the earth ; the beasts of the field had shelter 
under it, and the fowls of the air dwelt in the boughs 
thereof; and the tree was very fair and had much fruit, 
and all flesh was fed on it ; and then, lowering his voice, 
he tells how, as he gazed, he saw a watcher and a holy 
one come down from heaven, who cried aloud, Hew down 
the tree. " And now," cries the king, " can you tell me 
the interpretation ? " And for a time Daniel stands still 
and motionless. Does his heart fail him ? The record 



TffO PROPHET DANIEL, II. 141 

simply says, that " for one hour he was astonished." The 
ready words doubtless rush to his lips, but he hates to let 
them out ; he doesn't want to tell how the king's kingdom 
and mind are going to depart from him, and he is to wander 
forth to eat grass like a beast. The king, too, hesitates : 
a dark foreboding for a time gets the better of curiosity. 
But, directly, he nerves himself to hear the worst, and 
speaks very kindly : " Do not be afraid to tell me, oh 
Daniel ; let not the dream or its interpretation trouble 
thee." And at last Daniel speaks : " Oh, king, thou art 
the man ; God has exalted thee over every king, and over 
all the world, but thou shalt be brought low ; thou shalt 
be driven out from men and eat grass among the beasts of 
the field ; but thy kingdom — as the great watcher spared 
the stump of the tree — shall afterwards return to thee. 
Wherefore, O king, break off thy sins by righteousness 
and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it 
may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity." 

And straightway the king repented in sackcloth and 
ashes, and so God stayed the doom. But twelve months 
from that time we see Nebuchadnezzar walking in his 
palace and boasting : " Is not this my great Babylon that 
I have built by the might of my power and for the honor of 
my majesty ! " And behold, while he yet spake a voice 
came from heaven, saying : " Thy kingdom hath depart- 
ed," and undoubtedly God then touched his reason, and 
straightway he ran madly through the gates to eat grass. 

But his kingdom had not passed from him forever, and, 
according to the prophet's word, at the end of seven years, 
or possibly seven months, his reason came back, and he 
returned to his palace, and all his princes and officers 
gathered about him. Then immediately he sent out a new 
proclamation, and its closing words show his repentance, 
and how Daniel had brought this mighty king to God. 

And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes 



I 4 2 GREAT JOY. 

unto heaven, and my understanding returned unto me, and I blessed 
the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that liveth forever, 
whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from 
generation to generation. 

At the same time my reason returned unto me ; and for the glory of 
my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me ; and my 
councillors and my lords sought unto me. I was established in my 
kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. 

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol the king of heaven, all 
whose works are truth, and his ways judgment ; and those that walk 
in pride he is able to abase. 

And then he passes from the stage ; this is the last record 
of him ; and undoubtedly he and Daniel now walk the 
crystal pavement together. Oh, that mighty monarch was 
led to the God of the Hebrews by the faith of this Hebrew 
slave, and just because he had a religion and dared to 
make it known. 

But now we lose sight of the prophet for a few years, 
perhaps fifteen or twenty. The next we hear is that Belte- 
shazzar is on the throne, possibly as regent. He is be- 
lieved to have been a grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. One 
day he said he would make Daniel the third ruler of the^ 
people if he would tell him the handwriting on the wall. 
He was probably second himself, and Daniel would be 
next to him. Of this prince we have only one glimpse. 
The feast scene is the first and last we have of him, and it 
is enough. It was a great feastj and fully a thousand of 
his lords sat down together. Feasts in those days some- 
times lasted six months. How long this one lasted we 
don't know. The king caroused with his princes and 
satraps and all the mighty men of Babylon, drinking and 
rioting and praying to gods of silver and gold and brass 
and stubble, just what we're doing to-day, if we bow the 
knee to the gods of this world. And the revellers, waxing 
wanton, even go into the temple and lay sacrilegious hands 
on the sacred vessels brought away from Jerusalem, and 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, II. I43 

drank out of them, drank toasts to idols and harlots. And 
undoubtedly as they are drinking, they scoff at the God of 
Israel. I see them swearing and rioting when — the king 
turns pale and trembles from head to foot. Above the 
golden candlesticks, on a bare space on the wall, he sees 
the writing of the God of Zion. He distinctly sees the 
terrible finger. His voice shakes with terror, but manages 
to falter out : Bring in the wise men ; any man that can 
read the handwriting I will make third ruler of the king- 
dom. And they come trooping in, but there is no answer, 
none of them can read it. They are skilled in Chaldean 
lore, but this stumbles them. At last the queen comes in 
and whispers : Oh king, there is one man in the kingdom 
that can read that writing ; when your grandfather could 
not interpret his dreams he sent for Daniel, the Hebrew, 
and he knew all about them. Can we not find him ? 

And they did find him, and now we see the man of God 
again standing before a king's throne. To the king's 
hurried promises of gifts and honors, he replies, "you can 
keep your rewards," and quietly turns his eyes on the 
writing. And he reads it at the first glance, for it is his 
father's hand-writing. " Mene," he says, " thy kingdom 
hath departed from thee ; " " tekel," " thou art weighed in 
the balance and found wanting." Oh sinner, what if God 
should put you in the balance, and you have not got Christ 
in your soul ! How that word of doom must have rung 
through the palace that night ! " Upharsin," " thy kingdom 
is divided, it is given over to the hands of the enemy." 

And the destruction did not tarry. The King recovered 
himself, banished his fears, the dream and its interpreta- 
tion is idle, and went on drinking in his hall. He thought 
he was perfectly secure. He thought the great walls of 
Babylon perfectly safe. But there was Darius besieging the 
city j the enemy was right upon him ; was that safe ? Oh 
sinners of Chicago, death and hell are right on you ! 



I44 GREAT JOY. 

Death and hell, I say ; and they are just as close, may be, 
as the slayer's sword to those midnight revellers. While 
they revelled, the river Euphrates, that flowed under the 
walls, was turned into another channel ; the hosts of Medes 
and Persians rushed through, unobstructed, and in a few 
minutes more battered down the king's gate, and broke 
through the palace guard into the inmost palace chamber. 
And the king was slain, and his blood flowed in that 
banquet hall. 

We are next told Darius took the throne and set over 
the people 120 rulers, and over these three presidents, of 
whom Daniel was first. And so we find him in office 
again. I do not know how long he was in that position. 
But by and by a conspiracy took head among his fellow — 
officers to get rid of him. They got jealous and said : 
" Let's see if we can't get this man removed ; he's bossed 
us long enough, the sanctimonious old Hebrew." And then 
he was so impracticable, they could'nt do anything with 
him. There w r ere plenty of collectors and treasurers, but 
he kept such a close eye on them that they only made 
their salaries. There was no plundering of the govern- 
ment with Daniel at the head. He was president of the 
princes, and all revenue accounts passed before him. I 
can overhear the plotters whispering : " If we can only put 
him out of the way, we can make enough in two or three 
years to retire from office, have a city house in Babylon, 
and two or three villas in the country, have enough for all 
our days, we can go down to Egypt and see something of 
the world ; as things now are we can only get our exact 
dues, and it will take years to get anything respectable — 
yes, let's down with this pious Jew." Well, they worked 
things so as to get an investigating committee, hoping to 
catch him in his accounts. But they found no occasion nor 
fault against him. If he had put any relatives in office it 
would have been found out ; if he had been guilty of 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, II. 145 

peculation, or in any way broken the unalterable statutes of 
the kingdom, it would have come to light. Oh what a bright 
light was that, standing alone in that great city for God and 
the majesty of law ! 

But at last they struck on one weak point, they called 
it — he would worship no one but the God of Israel. The 
law of his God was his only assailable side. " If we can 
only get Darius," the conspirators plotted, " to forbid any 
one making a request for thirty days except from the King 
himself, we shall trap him, and then can cast him among 
the lions ; we will take good care to have the lions hungry." 
And the hundred and twenty princes took long council 
together. " Take care," they said ; " you must draw up 
the paper which is to be signed by the king with a deal of 
care and discretion. The king loves him, and he has in- 
fluence. Don't speak of. the movement outside of this 
meeting ; it might come to the ears of the king, and we 
must talk to the king ourselves." When the mine is "all 
ready, the hundred and twenty princes come to the King 
and open their business with flattering speech. If people 
come to praise me, I know they've something else coming 
— they've got a purpose for telling me I am a good man. 
And so we naturally hear these men saying, " King Darius, 
live for ever." They tell him how prosperous the realm 
is, and how much the people think of him. And then 
they tell him, in the most plausible manner that ever was, 
that if he would be remembered by children's children to 
all ages, just to sign this decree ; it would be a memorial 
of his greatness and goodness for ever. And the king re- 
plies graciously: "What is the decree- you wish me to 
sign ? " and, casting his eye over the paper, goes on : "I 
don't see any objection to that." In the pleasure of grant- 
ing a request he thinks nothing of Daniel, and the princes 
carefully refrain from jogging his memory. And he 
asks for his signet ring, and gives the royal stamp. The 

10 



I4 6 GREAT JOY. 

edict has become one of the laws of the Medes and Per- 
sians, that alter not; it reads : "Any man that worships any 
God but me for thirty days shall be cast into the 
lion's den." The news spreads all through the city ; it 
comes out perhaps in the Babylon I?zter-ocean, and quickly 
gets to the ears of Daniel. I can imagine some of them 
going to the prophet and advising him about the edict. 
" If you can only get out of the way for a little time, if you 
can just quit Babylon for thirty days, it will advance your 
own and the public interest together. You are the chief 
secretary and treasurer, in fact you are the chief ruler in 
the government ; you are an important man, and can do 
as you please. Well, now, just you get out of Babylon. 
Or, if you will stay in Babylon, don't let them catch you on 
your knees ; at all events, don't pray at the window towards 
Jerusalem. If you will pray, close that window and pull 
down the curtain, and put something in the key-hole." 
How many young men there are who don't dare to pray 
before their room-mates ; they've no moral courage. How 
many young men say to me, " Mr. Moody, don't ask me to 
get down on my knees at this prayer meeting." They 
want moral courage. Oh, thousands of men have, been 
lost for want of moral courage, to dare to get down on 
their knees and pray to God. The idea of policy coming 
in here is all wrong. I can imagine how that old prince, 
Daniel, now in his gray hairs, would view such a thought, 
that he is going to desert his God in his old age. All 
the remonstrances that must have been made fell dead; 
he just went on praying as usual three times a day, 
with his face towards Jerusalem. Our business men, too 
many of them, " don't have any time to pray," busi- 
ness is so pressing. But this old prophet found plenty 
of time, though Secretary and Treasurer of the most 
important empire in the world. And, besides his own 
business, he had to attend, doubtless, to much belong- 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, II 



*47 



ing of right to those hundred and twenty. But he 
would never have been too busy or ashamed at a prayer- 
meeting to stand up for God. He had a purpose, and 
he dared to make it known. He knew whom he worship- 
ped. The idea of looking back to church records of years 
ago to see whether a man has professed religion, is all 
wrong. In Babylon they knew whom Daniel believed on ; 
these hundred and twenty knew the very day after the pas- 
sage of the edict. He knows they are watching near his 
window when the hour comes for prayer. He can see two 
men close at his side, and knows they are spies ; perhaps 
they may be taking down every word he says for the papers. 
The moment comes, and he falls on his knees, and in tones 
even louder than ever makes his prayer to the God of 
Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He doesn't omit to 
pray for the king. It is right to pray for our rulers. If 
we quit praying for our rulers, our country will go to pieces. 
The reason they are not better oftentimes is just because 
we do not pray for them. And now the spies rush to the 
king and say : " O, Darius, live forever ; do you know 
there is a man in your kingdom that won't obey you ? " 
" Won't obey me ! Who is he ? " " Why, that man 
Daniel." And the king says : " I know he won't bow 
down and worship me ; I know that he worships the God 
of Heaven. Then the king sets his heart to deliver him 
all the day from the hands of those one hundred and 
twenty men. But they come to him and say : " If you want 
to break your law your kingdom will depart, your subjects 
will no longer obey you ; you must deliver him to the 
lions' den." And Darius is compelled, and at last, 
gives the word to have him sent away and cast into the 
lions' den, and these men take good care to have the den 
filled with the hungriest beasts in Babylon. He is thrown 
headlong into the den, but the angel of God flies down, and 
he lights unharmed on the bottom. The lions' mouths are 



148 GREAT JOY. 

stopped. They are as harmless as lambs. The old proph- 
et at the wonted hour drops on his knees and prays with 
his face towards Jerusalem, as calmly as in his chamber. 
And when it gets later he just lays his head on one of the 
lions and goes to sleep, and undoubtedly no one in all 
Babylon slept sweeter than Daniel in the lions' den. In 
the palace the king cannot sleep. He orders his chariot, 
and early in the morning rattles over the pavement and 
jumps down at the lions' den. I see him alight from his 
chariot in eager haste, and hear him cry down through 
the mouth of the den : " Oh, Daniel, servant of the living 
God, is thy God whom thou reverest continually, able to 
deliver thee from the lions ? " Hark ! Why, it is a resur- 
rection voice ! It is Daniel saying : " My God is able ; 
He hath sent one of his angels and hath shut the lions' 
mouths." I can see them now just embrace each other, and 
together they jump into the chariot and away they go back 
to the palace to breakfast. But I am over stepping my 
time. Let us pray. 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, III. 



I want to say some further things about Daniel. I want 
to refer to how an angel came to him, and, as we read in 
the twelfth chapter of Daniel, told him he was a man 
greatly beloved. Another angel had come to him with 
the same message. It is generally thought this last angel 
was the same one spoken of in Revelation, ist chapter, 
13th verse, as coming to John when banished at the Isle 
of Patmos. People thought he was sent off there alone ; 
but no ; the angel of God was with him. And so with 
Daniel. Here in the ioth-chapter and 5th verse he says: 
" Then I lifted up mine eyes, and behold, a certain man 
clothed with fine linen, and otherwise arrayed as God's 
messenger, who cried, ' Oh, Daniel, a man greatly beloved, 
understand the words which I speak unto thee, and stand 
upright, for unto thee am I now sent.' " It was Daniel's 
need that brought him from the glory land. It was the 
Son of God right by his side in that strange land. And 
that was the second time that the word came to him that 
he was greatly beloved. Yes, three times a messenger 
came from the throne of God to tell him this. I love to 
speak of that precious verse in the eleventh chapter — the 
thirty-second verse : " The people that do know their 
God shall be strong and do exploits," and also of the 
twelfth chapter and second and third verses: "And 
many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall 
awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame 
and everlasting contempt ; and they that be wise shall 

*49 



l5 o GREAT JOY. 

shine as the stars of the firmament ; and they that turn 
many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. 

This was the angel's comfort to Daniel, and a great 
comfort it was. The fact with all of us is that we like to 
shine. There is no doubt about that. Every mother likes 
her child to shine. If her boy shines at school by getting 
to the head of his class, the proud mother tells all the 
neighbors, and she has a right to. But it is not the great 
of this world that will shine the brightest. For a few years 
they may shed bright light, but they go out in darkness; with- 
out an inner lightness. Supplying the brightness they go 
out in black darkness. Where are the great men who did not 
know Daniel's God ? Did they shine long ? Why, we know 
of Nebuchadnezzar and the rest of them scarcely a thing, 
except as they fill in the story about these humble men of 
God. We are not told that statesmen shall shine ; they may 
for a few years or days, but they are soon forgotten. Look 
at those great ones who passed away in the days of Daniel. 
How wise in council they were, how mighty and victorious 
over hundreds of nations ; what gods upon earth they were ! 
Yet their names are forgotten and written in the grave. Phi- 
losophers, falsely so-called, do they live ? Behold men of 
science — scientific men they call themselves— going down 
into the bowels of the earth, digging away at some carcass 
and trying to make it talk against the voice of God. They 
shall go down to death by and by, and their names shall 
rot. But the man of God shines. Yes, he it is who shall 
shine as the stars forever and ever. This Daniel has been 
gone for 2,500 years, but still increasing millions read of 
his life and actions. And so it shall be to the end ; he 
will only get better known and better loved ; he shall only 
shine the brighter as the world grows older. Of a truth they 
that be wise and turn many to righteousness shall shine on, 
like stars, to eternity. 

And this blessed, thrice blessed, happiness, like all the 



THE PROPHE T DANIEL, M- 1 5 1 

blessings of God's kingdom, is for everyone. Even with- 
out the first claim to education or refinement you can 
shine if you will. One of you sailors there can shine for 
ever if you only go to work for the kingdom. The Bible 
don't say the great shall shine, but they that turn many to 
righteousness. A false impression has got hold of many of 
God's people. They have got the idea that only a few can 
talk about God's affairs. Nine-tenths of the people say, if 
anything is to be done for the souls of men, " Oh, the 
ministers must do it." It don't enter into the heart of the 
people that they have any part in the matter. It is the 
devil's work to keep Christians from the blessed luxury of 
winning souls to God. Anyone can do this work. A 
little girl only eieven years old came to me in a Sunday- 
school and said : " Won't you please pray that God will 
make me a winner of souls?" I felt so proud of her, and 
my pride was justified, for she has become one of the best 
winners of souls in this country. Oh, suppose she lives 
threescore years, and goes on winning four or five souls 
every year ; at the end of her journey there will be three 
hundred souls on the way to glory. And how long will it 
be before that little company swells to a great army. Don't 
you see how that little mountain rill keeps swelling till it car- 
ries everything before it. Little trickling streams have run 
into it, till now, a mighty river, it has great cities on its banks, 
and the commerce of all nations floating on its waters. So 
when a single soul is won to Christ you cannot see the re- 
sult, A single one multiplies to a thousand, and that into 
ten thousand. Perhaps a million shall be the fruit ; we 
cannot tell. We only know that the Christian who has 
turned so many to righteousness, shall indeed shine for 
ever and ever. Look at those poor fishermen, Jesus' dis- 
ciples, how unlettered. They were not learned men, but 
great in winning souls. So not a child here but can work 
for God. 



15 2 GREAT JOY. 

The one thing that keeps people from work is that they 
don't have the desire. If a man has this desire God soon 
qualifies him ; and what we want is God's qualification ; it 
must come from Him. I have been thinking what shall be 
done for the next thirty days that I continue to preach 
here. If I should just put it to vote, and asked all Christians 
who wanted prayers to rise, all of you, I know, would rise. 
There are at least 3,000 Christians here. Now, is it too 
much to ask that 3,000 Christians will each lead one soul 
to Christ this coming week ? The Son of God died on the 
cross for you. Right here in this Tabernacle you can tell 
those weeping over their sins about God and heaven. How 
many times I have watched, just to see if Christians would 
speak to these sorrowing ones ! If we only had open-eyed 
watchers for souls, there wouldn't be a night but five 
hundred or a thousand inquirers would crowd into the 
inquiry-rooms. These anxious inquirers are at every 
meeting, just waiting to have warm-hearted Christians 
bring them to Christ. They are timid, but will always 
listen to one speaking to them about Christ. Suppose 
each one of you now prayed : " Give me some soul this 
week for my hire ; " what would be the result ? This room 
would not hold the multitude sending up shouts of praise 
to God and making heaven glad. Where there is an 
anxious sinner there is the place for the Christian. 

A little bed-ridden boy I knew kept mourning that he 
couldn't work for Jesus. The minister told him to pray, 
and pray he did ; and the. persons he prayed for one by 
one felt the load of their sins and professed Christ. When 
he heard that such a one had not giving in, he just turned 
his face to the wall and prayed harder. Well, he died, 
when by his little memorandum it was found that he 
had prayed for fifty-six persons daily by name, and before 
he was buried all of them had given their hearts to Jesus. - 
Tell me that little boy won't shine in the kingdom of God ! 
These little ones can be used bv God. 



\ 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, III. ' I53 

I remember a good many years ago I resolved I 
wouldn't let a day pass without talking to someone about 
their soul's salvation. And it was in that school God 
qualified me to speak the Gospel. If we were faithful over 
small things God will promote us. If God says : " Speak 
to that young man," obey the word, and you will be 
given by and by plenty of souls. I went down past the 
corner of Clark and Lake streets one day, and, fulfilling 
my vow, on seeing a man leaning up against a lamp-post, I 
went up to him and said : " Are you a Christian ? " He 
damned me and cursed me, and said to mind my own 
business. He knew me, but I didn't know him. He said 
to a friend of his that afternoon that he had never been so 
insulted in his life, and told him to say to me that I was 
damning the cause I pretended to represent. Well, the 
friend came and delivered his message. " May be I am 
doing more hurt than good," I said \ " maybe I am mis- 
taking, and God hasn't shown me the right way." That 
was the time I was sleeping and living in the Young Men's 
Christian Association rooms, where I was then President, 
Secretary, janitor, and everything else. Well, one night 
after midnight I heard a knock at the door. And there on 
the step leading into the street stood this stranger I had 
made so mad at the lamp-post, and he said he wanted to 
talk to me about his soul's salvation. He said : " Do you 
remember the man you met about three months ago at a 
lamp-post, and how he cursed you ? I have had no peace 
since that night, I couldn't sleep. Oh, tell me what 
to do to be saved." And we just fell down on our knees, 
and I prayed, and that day he went to the noon prayer 
meeting and openly confessed the Saviour, and soon after 
went to the war a Christian man. I do not know but he 
died on some Southern battle-field or in a hospital, but I 
expect to see him in the kingdom of God. Oh, how often 
have I thanked God for that word to that dying 'sinner that 
He put into my mouth ! 



I S4 GREAT JOY. 

And I have just been engaged in this personal work 
all my life. God's business is not to be done wholesale. 
Think of the Master Himself talking just to Nicodemus ; 
and then how He talked to that poor woman at the well of 
Samaria. Christ's greatest utterances were delivered to 
congregations of one or two. How many are willing to 
speak to tens of thousands, but not to speak to a few ! I 
knew a man who was going to get rich and do large things 
for God, but he never did anything ; he wouldn't do little 
things, that was the secret. Oh, be willing, Christians, to 
be built into the temple, as a polished cap-stone, or just a 
single brick — no matter just how, but somehow. Say to 
yourself in your home, in your Sunday school classes, in 
your daily rounds, " I'll not let this sun go down till I lead 
one soul to Christ." And then, having done all, shall you 
shine as gems in the great white throne forever and ever. 

I want to tell you how I got the first impulse to work 
solely for the conversion of men. For a long time after 
my conversion I didn't accomplish anything. I hadn't got 
into my right place ; that was it. I hadn't thought enough 
of this personal work. I'd get up in prayer meeting, and 
I'd pray with the others, but just to go up to a man and 
take hold of his coat and get him down on his kness, I , 
hadn't yet got round to that. It was in i860 the change 
came. In the Sunday school I had a pale delicate young 
man as one of the teachers. I knew his burning piety, and 
assigned him to the worst class in the school. They were 
all girls, and it was an awful class. They kept gadding 
around in the school-room, and were laughing and carrying 
on all the while. And this young man had better success 
than any one else. One Sunday he was absent, and I tried 
myself to teach the class, but couldn't do anything with 
them ; they seemed farther off than ever from any concern 
about their souls. Well, the day after his absence, early 
Monday morning, the young man came into the store where 



THE PROPHET DANIEL, III. x $$ 

I worked, and, tottering and bloodless, threw himself down 
on some boxes. " What's the matter ? " I said. " I have 
been bleeding at the lungs, and they have given me up to 
die," he said. " But you are not afraid to die ? " I 
questioned. " No," said he. " I am not afraid to die, but 
I have got to stand before God and give an account of my 
stewardship, and not one of my Sabbath school scholars 
has been brought to Jesus. I have failed to bring one, and 
haven't any strength to do it now." He was so weighed 
down that I got a carriage and took that dying man in it, 
and we called at the homes of every one of his scholars, 
and to each one he said, as best his faint voice would let 
him " I have come to just ask you to come to the Saviour," 
and then he prayed as I never heard before. And for ten 
days he labored in that way, sometimes walking to the 
nearest houses. And at the end of that ten days every one 
of that large class had yielded to the Saviour. Full well I 
remember the night before he went away (for the doctors 
said he must hurry to the South), how we held a true love- 
feast. It was the very gate of heaven, that meeting. He 
prayed and they prayed ; he didn't ask them, he didn't 
think they could pray ; and then we sung " Blessed be the 
tie that binds." It was a beautiful night in June that he 
left on the Michigan Southern, and I was down to the train 
to help him off. And those girls every one gathered there 
again, all unknown to each other ; and the depot seemed 
a second gate to heaven, in the joyful, yet tearful, com- 
munion and farewells between those newly-redeemed souls 
and him whose crown of rejoicing it will be that he led 
them to Jesus. At last the gong sounded, and, supported 
on the platform, the dying man shook hands with each one 
and whispered. " I will meet you yonder." 

Some of the very best, most constant teachers I had 
before going to Europe were converted at that time, and 
they, in their turn, have gathered many sheaves, and I my- 



I5 6 GREAT JOY. 

self was lead by this incident, this wonderful blessing of 
God on individual effort, to throw up my business and give 
my whole strength to God's work. Shall not that young 
man have a high place, a place very near the Saviour of 
men, in the day when He makes up his jewels ? Oh, 
friends, if you want to shine in the kingdom of God, work 
for Him to-day. Shall we not, every one, go out of this 
building saying : " I will try to bring one soul to Christ 
to-day?" 



TO THE AFFLICTED. 



. If I were to ask this audience what Christ came into 
this world for, every one of you would say to save sinners, 
and then you would stop. A great many think that is all 
Christ came to do — to save sinners. Now, we are told 
that he came, to be sure, to " seek and save that which was 
lost • " but then he came to do more. He came to heal 
the broken-hearted. In that eighteenth verse of the 
fourth chapter of Luke, which I read to you last night, He 
said that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, and that 
He was anointed to preach the gospel to the poor, and in 
the next sentence He tells us, He is sent to heal the broken- 
hearted. In another place we are told. He came into the 
world to declare who the Father was, and reveal Him to 
the sons of men. 

To-night I want to take up this one thought — that Christ 
was sent into the world to heal the broken-hearted. When 
the Prince of Wales came to this country a few years ago, 
the whole country was excited as to his purpose. What 
was his object in coming here ? Had he come to look 
into our republican form of government, or our institutions, 
or was it simply to see and be seen ? He came and he 
went without telling us what he came for. When the 
Prince of Peace came into this dark world, He did not 
come in any private way. He tells us that He came, not 
to see and be seen, but to " seek and save that which was 
lost," and also "to heal the broken-hearted/' And in the 
face of this announcement, it is a mystery to me why those 
who have broken hearts will rather carry them year in and 

157 



158 GREAT JOY. 

year out, than just bring them to this Great Physician. 
How many men in Chicago are just going down to their 
graves with a broken heart? They have carried their 
hearts weighted with trouble for years and years, and yet, 
when they open the Scriptures they can see the passage 
telling us that He came here for the purpose of healing the 
broken-hearted. He left heaven and all its glory to come 
to the world — sent by the Father, He tells us, for the pur- 
pose of healing the broken-hearted. 

You will find, my friends, that there is no class cf people 
exempt from broken hearts. The rich and the poor suffer 
alike. There was a time when I used to visit the poor, 
that I thought all the broken hearts were to be found among 
them, but within the last few years I have found there are 
as many broken hearts among the learned as the unlearned, 
the cultured as the uncultured, the rich as the poor. If 
you could but go up one of our avenues and down 
another, and reach the hearts of the people, and get them 
to turn out their whole story, you would be astonished at 
the wonderful history of every family. I remember a few 
years ago I had been out of the city for some weeks. 
When I returned I started out to make some calls. The 
first place I went to I found a mother, her eyes red with 
weeping. I tried to find out what was troubling her, and 
she reluctantly opened her heart and told me all. She 
said, " Last night my only boy came home about midnight 
drunk. I didn't know that he was addicted to drunken- 
ness, but this morning I found out that he has been drink- 
ing for weeks ; and," she continued, " I would rather have 
seen him laid in the grave than have him brought home in 
the condition I saw him in last night." I tried to comfort 
her as best I could when she told me her sad story. 
When I went away from that house I didn't want to go 
into any other house where there was family trouble. The 
very next house I went to, however, where some of the 



TO THE AFFLICTED. I59 

children who attended my Sunday school resided, I found 
that death had been there and laid his hand on one of 
them. The mother spoke to me of her afflictions, and 
brought to me the playthings and the little shoes of 
the child, and the tears trickled down that mother's cheeks 
as she related to me her sorrow. I got out as soon as pos- 
sible, and hoped I should see no more family trouble that 
day. The next visit I made was to a home where I found 
a wife with a bitter story. Her husband had been neg- 
lecting her for a long time, "and now," she said, "he has 
left me, and I don't know where he has gone. Winter is 
coming on, and I don't know what is going to become of 
my family." I tried to comfort her, and prayed with her, 
and endeavored to get her to lay all her sorrows on Christ. 
The next home I entered I found a woman crushed and 
broken-hearted. She told me her boy had forsaken her, 
and she had no idea where he had gone. That afternoon 
I made five calls, and in every home I found a broken 
heart. Every one had a sad tale to tell, and if you visited 
any home in Chicago you would find the truth of the say- 
ing, that " there is a skeleton in every house." 1 suppose 
while I am talking, you are thinking of the great sorrow in 
your own bosom. I do not know anything about you, but 
if I came round to every one of you, and you were to tell 
me the truth, I would hear a tale of sorrow. The very last 
man I spoke to last night was a young mercantile man, 
who told me his load of sorrow had been so great, that 
many times during the last few weeks he had gone down to 
the lake and had been tempted to plunge in and end his 
existence. His burden seemed too much for him. Think 
of the broken hearts in Chicago to-night ! They could be 
numbered by hundreds— yea, by thousands. All over this 
crty are broken heart's. If all the sorrow represented in 
this great city was written in a book, this building couldn't 
hold that book, and you couldn't read it in a long life-time. 



^o great joy. 

This earth is not a stranger to tears, neither is the present 
the only time when they could be found in abundance. 
From Adam's days to ours tears have been shed, and a 
wail has been going up to heaven from the broken-hearted. 
And I say it again, it is a mystery to me how all those 
broken hearts can keep away from Him who has come to 
heal them. For six thousand years that cry of sorrow has 
been going up to God. We find the tears of Jacob put on 
record, when he was told that his own son was no more. 
His sons and daughters tried to give him comfort, but he 
refused to be comforted. We are also told of the tears of 
King David. I can see him, as the messenger brings the 
news of the death of his son, exclaiming in anguish, " O, Ab- 
salom, my son, would that I had died for thee !'" And 
when Christ came into the world the first sound He heard 
was woe — the wail of those mothers in Bethlehem ; and 
from the manger to the cross, He was surrounded with 
sorrow. We are told that He often looked up to heaven 
and sighed. I believe it was because there was so much 
suffering around Him. It was on His right hand and on 
His left — everywhere on earth ; and the thought that He 
had come to relieve the people of the earth of their burdens, 
and so few would accept Him, made Him sorrowful. He 
came for that purpose. Let the hundreds of thousands 
just cast their burdens on Him. He has come to bear 
them, as well as our sins. He will bear our griefs and 
carry our sorrows. There is not a burdened son of Adam 
in Chicago who cannot but be freed if he will only come to 
Him. 

Let me call your attention to this little word " sent," 
" He hath sent me." Take your Bibles and read about 
those who have been sent by God, and one thought will 
come to you — that no man who has ever been sent by God 
to do His work has ever failed. No matter how great- the 
work, how mighty the undertaking; no matter how many 



TO THE AFFLICTED. ^i 

difficulties had to be encountered, when they were sent 
from God they were sure to succeed. God sent Moses 
down to Egypt to bring 3,000,000 people out of bondage. 
The idea would have seemed absurd to most people. Fancy 
a man with an impediment in his speech, without an army, 
without Generals, with no record, bringing 3,000,000 people 
from the power of a great nation like that of the Egyptians. 
But God sent him, and what was the result? Pharaoh said 
they should not go, and the great king and all his army 
were going to prevent them. But did he succeed ? God 
sent Moses and he didn't fail. We find that God sent 
Joshua to the walls of Jericho, and he marched around the 
walls, and at the proper time those walls came tumbling 
down and the city fell into his hands. God sent Elijah to 
stand before Ahab, and we read the result ; Samson and 
Gideon were sent by God and we are told in the Scriptures 
what they accomplished, and so all through the word we 
find that when God sent men they have never failed. Now, 
do you think for a moment that God's own Son, sent to us, 
is going to fail ? If Moses, Elijah, Joshua, Gideon, Samson, 
and all these mighty men sent by God succeeded in doing 
their work, do you think the Son of Man is going to fail ? 
Do you think, if he has come to heal broken, hearts, he is 
going to fail ? Do you think there is a heart so bruised and 
broken that can't be healed by Him ? He can heal them 
all, but the great trouble is that men won't come. If there 
is a broken heart here to-night just bring it to the Great 
Physician. If you break an arm or a leg, you run off and 
get the best physician. If you have a broken heart, you 
needn't go to a doctor or minister with it ; the best physician 
is the Great Physician. In the days of Christ they didn't 
have hospitals or physicians as we have now. When a 
man was sick he was taken to the door, and the passers-by 
prescribed for him. If a man came along who had had the 
same disease as the sufferer he just told him what he had 



j6 2 great joy. 

done to get cured. I remember I had a disease for a few 
months, and when I recovered if I met a man with the 
same disease I had to tell him what cured me, I could 
not keep the prescription all to myself. When He came 
there and found the sick at their cottage door, the sufferers 
found more medicine in His words than there was in all 
the prescriptions of that country. He is a mighty physician, 
who has come to heal every wounded heart in this building 
and in Chicago to-night. You needn't run to any other 
physician. The great difficulty is that people try to get 
some other physician — they go to this creed and that creed, 
to this doctor of divinity and that one, instead of coming 
directly to the Master. He has told us that His mission is 
to heal the broken hearts, and if He has said this, let us 
take Him at His word and just ask Him to heal. 

I was thinking to-day of the difference between those 
who know Christ, when trouble comes upon them, and those 
who know Him not. I know several members of families 
in this city who are just stumbling into their graves over 
trouble. I know two widows, in Chicago who are weeping 
and moaning over the death of their husbands, and their 
grief is just taking them to their graves. Instead of bring- 
ing their burdens to Christ they mourn clay and night, and 
the result will be, that in a few weeks or years at most 
their sorrow will take them to their graves, when they 
ought to take it all to the Great Physician. Three years 
ago a father took his wife and family on board that 
ill-fated French steamer. They were going to Europe, and 
when out on the ocean another vessel ran into her and she 
went down. That mother when I was preaching in Chicago 
used to bring her two children to the meetings every night. 
_Itwasone of the most beautiful sights I ever looked on, to 
see how those little children used to sit and listen, and to 
see the tears trickling down their cheeks when the Saviour 
was preached. It seemed as if nobody else in that meeting 



TO THE AFFLICTED. ^3 

drank in the truth as eagerly as those little ones. One 
night when an invitation had been extended to all to go 
into the inquiry room, one of these little children said : 
" Mamma, why can't I go in, too ? " The mother allowed 
them to come into the room, and some friend spoke to 
them,' and to all appearances they seemed to understand 
the plan of salvation as well as their elders. When that 
memorable night came, that mother went down and came 
up without her two children. Upon reading the news I 
said : '• It will kill her," and I quitted my post in Edinburgh 
— the only time I left my post on the other side — and 
went down to Liverpool to try and comfort her. But when 
I got there, I found that the Son of God had been there 
before me, and instead of me comforting her she comforted 
me. She told me she could not think of those children as 
be ng in the sea ; it seemed as if Christ had permitted her 
to take those children on that vessel only that they might 
be wafted to Him, and had saved her life only that she 
might come back and work a little longer for Him. When 
she got up the other day at a mothers' meeting in Farwell 
Hall, and told her story, I thought I would tell the 
mothers of it the first chance I got. So if any of you have 
some great affliction, if any of you have lost a loved and 
loving father, mother, brother, husband, or wife, come to 
Christ, because God has sent Him to heal the broken- 
hearted. 

Some of you, I can imagine, will say, " Ah, I could stand 
that affliction ; I have something harder than that." I 
remember a mother coming to me and saying, " It is easy 
enough for you to speak in that way ; if you had the burden 
that I've got, you couldn't cast it on the Lord." " Why, 
is your burden so great that Christ can't carry it ? " I 
asked. " No, it isn't too great for Him to carry ; but I 
can't put it on Him." " That is your fault," I replied ; and 
I find a great many people with burdens who, rather than 



1 64 GREAT JOY. 

just come to Him with them, strap them tighter on their 
backs and go away staggering under their load. I asked 
her the nature of her trouble, and she told me, " I have an 
only boy who is a wanderer on the face of the earth. I 
don't know where he is. If I only knew where he was I 
would go round the world to find him. You don't know 
how I love that boy. This sorrow is killing me." " Why 
can't you take him to Christ ? You can reach Him at the 
throne, even though He be at the uttermost part of the 
world. Go tell God all about your trouble, and He will 
take away his, and not only that, but if you never see him 
on earth, God can give you faith that you will see your boy 
in heaven." And then I told her of a mother who lived 
down in the southern part of Indiana. Some years ago 
her boy came up to this city. He was a moralist. My 
friends, a man has to have more than morality to lean upon 
in this great city. He hadn't been here long before he 
was led astray. A neighbor happened to come up here 
and found him one night in the streets drunk. When that 
neighbor went home at first he thought he wouldn't say 
anything about it to the boy's father, but afterwards he 
thought it was his duty to tell. So in a crowd in the street 
of their little town, he just took that father aside, and told 
him what he had seen in Chicago. It was a terrible blow. 
When the children had been put to bed that night he said 
to his wife. "Wife, I have bad news. I have heard 
from Chicago to-day." The mother dropped her work in 
an instant, and said : " Tell me what it is." " Well, our 
son has been seen on the streets of Chicago drunk." 
Neither of them slept that night, but they took their 
burden to Christ. About daylight the mother said : I don't 
know how, I don't know when or where, but God has given 
me faith to believe that our son will be saved and will 
never come to a drunkard's grave." One week after, that 
boy left Chicago. He couldn't tell why — an unseen power 



TO THE AFFLICTED. ^5 

seemed to lead him to his mother's home, and the first 
thing he said on coming over the threshold was, " Mother, 
I have come home to ask you to pray for me ; " and soon 
after he came back to Chicago a bright and a shining light. 
If you have got a burden like this, fathers, mothers, bring 
it to Him and cast it on Him, and He, the Great Physician, 
will heal your broken hearts. 

I can imagine again some of you saying, " How am I to 
do it? " My friends, go to Him as a personal friend. He 
is not a myth. What we want to do is to treat Christ as 
we treat an earthly friend. If you have sins, just go and 
tell Him all about them ; if you have some great burden, 
" Go bury thy sorrow," bury it in His bosom. If you go 
to people and tell them of your cares, your sorrows, they 
will tell you they haven't time to listen. But He will not 
only hear your story, however long it be, but will bind your 
broken heart up. Oh, if there is a broken heart here 
to-night, bring it to Jesus, and I tell you upon authority, He 
will heal you. He has said He will bind your wounds up — 
not only that, He will heal them. 

During the war I remember of a young man, not 20, . 
who was court-martialled down in the front and sentenced 
to be shot. The story was this : The young fellow had en- 
listed. He was not obliged to, but he went off with another 
young man. They were what we would call " chums." 
One night this companion was ordered out on picket duty 
and he asked the young man to go for him. The next 
night he was ordered out himself ; and having been awake 
two nights, and not being used to it, fell asleep at his post, 
and for the offence he was tried and sentenced to death. 
It was right after the order issued by the President that no 
interference should be allowed in cases of this kind. This 
sort of thing had become too frequent, and it must be stop- 
ped. When the news reached the father and mother in 
Vermont, it nearly broke their hearts. The thought that 



1 66 GREAT JOY. 

their son should be shot was too great for them. They 
had no hope that he would be saved by anything they could 
do. But they had a little daughter who had read the life 
of Abraham Lincoln and knew how he loved his own 
children, and she said : " If Abraham Lincoln knew how 
my father and mother loved my brother he wouldn't let 
him he shot." That little girl thought this over and made 
up her mind to go and see the President. She went to the 
White House, and the sentinel, when he saw her imploring 
looks, passed her in, and when she came to the door and 
told the private secretary that she wanted to see the Presi- 
dent he could not refuse her. She came into the chamber 
and found Abraham Lincoln surrounded by his generals 
and counsellors, and when he saw the little country girl he 
asked her what she wanted. The little maid told her plain 
simple story — how her brother, whom her mother and 
father loved very dearly, had been sentenced to be shot. 
How they were mourning for him, and if he was to die in 
that way it would break their hearts. The President's 
heart was touched with compassion, and he immediately 
sent a dispatch cancelling the sentence and giving the boy 
a parole so that he could come home and see that father 
and mother. I just tell you this to show you how Abra- 
ham Lincoln's heart was moved by compassion for the 
sorrow of that father and mother, and if he showed so 
much, do you think the Son of God will not have compas- 
sion upon you sinner, if you only take that crushed, bruised 
heart to Him ? He will read it. Have you got a 
drunken husband ? Go tell him. He can make him a 
blessing to the church and to the world. Have you a pro- 
fligate son ? Go take your story to him, and he will com- 
fort you, and bind up and heal your sorrow. What a 
blessing it is to have such a Saviour. He has been sent to 
heal the broken-hearted. May the text, if the sermon 
doesn't, reach everyone here to-night, and may every 



TO THE AFFLICTED. ^ 

crushed, broken, and bruised heart be brought to that 
Saviour, and they will hear His comforting words. He will 
comfort you as a mother comforts her child if you will only 
come in prayer and lay all your burdens before Him. 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 



You who have been here during the week have heard me 
speaking on the fourth chapter of Luke and eighteenth verse. 
I spoke on the first three clauses of that verse, and we have 
now come to the next clause" in which he tells us that he 
came to give sight to the blind — for the recovery of sight 
to the blind. Paul tell us, in his Epistle to the Corinthians 
fourth chapter and third verse : u But if our gospel be hid, 
it is hid to them that are lost ; in whom the god of this world 
hath blinded the minds of the?n which believe not lest the light 
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should 
shine unto them" " If the gospel be hid ; " " In whom the 
God of this world hath blinded."* Now you may see this 
world is just one large blind asylum— it is full of blind 
people. Last Wednesday night I tried to tell you that the 
world was full of broken hearts ; last night I tried to tell 
you that the world was full of captives, bound hand and 
foot in sin, and to-night I tell you that it is full of blind 
people. Not only blind people, but they are bound and 
broken-hearted. You might say that nearly all those in 
the world come under the three heads. Now just look at 
the contrast between Satan and Christ. Satan breaks men's 
hearts. But Christ binds them up ; Satan binds the people 
of this earth hand and foot, but Christ breaks the fetters 
and sets them free ; Satan makes us blind, but Christ 
opens our eyes. He came to do this, and just see how He 
was received. He went into that synagogue at Nazareth 
and preached this glorious gospel, and commenced by tell- 

168 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. j6g 

ing them that the spirit of the Lord was upon Him, and 
went on to tell them that He had come to save them ; and 
what did they do ? They thrust Him out of the city, and 
took Him to the brow of the hill, and would have hurled 
Him into hell if they could. And men have been as bitter 
toward the gospel all along these eighteen hundred 
years. Why, some men would tear the preacher of it limb 
from limb if it wasn't for the law. Then we find when He 
goes to Bethany, and raising up the mother of Martha and 
Mary and binding up broken hearts as he went along and 
preaching mercy, and they want to kill Him. We find Him 
in the third chapter of Mark setting the captive free. 
Here we find a man possessed of demons, whom no one 
could cure, set at liberty by the Son of Man, and in the 
healing because they lost a few swine they told him to de- 
part from their coasts. Then we find him just a few days 
before his death, almost on his way to Calvary, giving sight 
to that blind man. And for all this they take him to that 
mount and nail him to a cross. Oh what blindness ! 

We are told that there are 3,000,000 people in the world 
who are called blind. Every one calls them blind because 
they haven't their natural sight. But do you ever think 
how many are spiritually blind in this world ? Why, if 
there are 3.000,000 people in the world who have not their 
natural sight, how many do you suppose are spiritually 
blind ? We sympathize with those who have lost their 
sight. Nothing appeals to our svmpathy so readily. I 
believe I could raise thousands of dollars among you by 
telling you about some blind one who is suffering for the 
necessaries of life through their affliction. How many of 
you wouldn't put your hand in your pockets and give lib- 
erally? How it moves our compassion — how it moves 
our hearts as we see the blind men, women or children in 
the streets. How your heart goes out to those poor unfor- 
tunates. I was at a meeting in London when I was there, 



170 GREAT JOY. 

and I heard a man speaking with wonder, but power and 
earnestness. " Who is that man ? " I asked, my curiosity 

being excited. " Why, that is Dr. . He is blind." I 

felt some interest in this man, and at the close of the meet- 
ing I sought an interview, and he told me that he had been 
stricken blind when very young. His mother took him to 
a doctor, and asked him about his sight. " You must give 
up all hope," the doctor said. " Your boy is blind, and 
will be forever." " What, do you think my boy will never 
see?" asked his mother. "Never again." The mother 
took her boy to her bosom and cried, " Oh, my boy, who 
will take care of you when I am gone — who will look to 
you ! " forgetting the faithfulness of that God she had 
learned him to love. He became a servant of the Lord, 
and was permitted to print the Bible in twelve different 
languages, printed in the raised letters, so that all the blind 
people could read the Scriptures themselves. He had a 
congregation, my friends, of 3,000,000 people, and I think 
that blind man was one of the happiest beings in all Lon- 
don. He was naturally blind, but he had eyes to his soul, 
and could see a bright eternity in the future. He had 
built his foundation upon the living God. We pity those 
who have not their natural sight ; but how you should pity 
yourself if you are spiritually blind. If we could get all the 
blind, spiritually, in this city ! You talk about those great 
political meetings, they would be nothing to the crowd you 
would collect. Why, just look at all the men in this city 
who are blind, and many of them are in the churches. This 
has been the trouble with men always. Christ couldn't 
get men to understand they were blind ; He couldn't even 
get His disciples to open their eyes until after He went up 
to heaven. And then they received the spiritual truth. 
How many are the professed children of God we read of in 
the Book of Revelation ? 

I think to-night I might pick up some of the different 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 171 

classes who are blind. I am somewhat acquainted with 
the rich men of this city, and I don't think it would take 
long to prove that the leading men of this city are blind — 
blind to their own interests. Take a man just spending 
all his strength and energies to get money. He is money 
blind. He is so blind in his pursuit that he cannot see the 
God of heaven. Money is his god. His cry is continually 
" Money, money," and it is the cry of many here in 
Chicago. They don't care about God, don't care about 
salvation, don't heed their eternal condition so long as 
they get money, money, money. And a great many of 
them have got it. But how lean their souls are. God has 
given them the desire of their heart, but He has given them 
leanness of soul. I heard of a man who had accumulated 
great wealth, and death came upon him suddenly ancfr he 
realized, as the saying is, that " there was no bank in the 
shroud," that he couldn't take anything away with him ; we 
may have all the money on earth, but we must leave it 
behind us. He called a lawyer in and commenced to will 
away his property before he went away. His little girl 
couldn't understand exactly where he was going, and she 
said, " Father, have you got a home in that land you are 
going to ! " The arrow went down to his soul. " Got a 
home there ? " The rich man had hurled away God, and 
neglected to secure a home there for the sake of his 
money, and he found it was now too late. He was money 
mad, and he was money blind. It wouldn't be right for me 
to give names, but I could tell you a good many here in 
Chicago who are going on in this way — just spending all 
their lives in the accumulation of what they cannot take 
with them. This is going on while how many poor people 
are suffering for the necessaries of life. These men don't 
know they are blind — money is their god. 

There is another class who don't care so much for 
money. We might call them business blind. It is busi- 



Xj2 GREAT JOY. 

ness, business, business with them all the time. In the 
morning they haven't time to worship. They must attend 
to business ; must get down to the store. Down they run, 
and haven't time to get home to dinner. They musn't let 
anyone get ahead of them ; and they get home late at 
night and their families have gone to bed. They scarcely 
ever see their children. It is all business with them. A 
man told me not long ago, " I must attend to my business. 
That is my first consideration, and see that none gets 
ahead of me." That is his god. I don't care if he is an 
elder or a deacon in the church. That is his god. The 
god of business has blinded him. Look at the merchant 
prince who died the other day. Men called him a clever, 
shrewd man. Call that shrewdness — to pile up wealth for 
a lifetime and leave no record behind so that we know he 
has gone to heaven ? He rose above men in his business ; 
he devoted his whole soul to it, and the world called him 
a power among men ; the world called him great. But let 
the Son of God write his obituary ; let him put an epitaph 
on his tombstone, and it would be, " Thou fool." Man 
says, " I must attend to business first ; " God says, " Seek 
first the kingdom of. God." I don't care what your business 
may be ; it may be honorable, legitimate, and all that, and 
you think you must attend to it first ; bear in mind that 
God tells every man to seek His kingdom first. 

There is another class of people who are blind. They 
don't care so much about riches, they are not very am- 
bitious to become rich, they don't spend their lives in 
business matters. They are politically blind. They are 
mad over politics ; they are bound up in the subject. 
There will be a great many broken hearts in a week hence. 
They have got their favorite candidate to attend to and 
they cannot find time to worship God. How little prayer 
there has been about the election. There has been a good 
deal of work, but how much praying has been done ? We 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. ^3 

want prayer to go up all over our land that high and honest 
men may rule over us. But they are so excited over this 
election that they have no time to pray to the God of 
heaven. They are politically blind. How many men within 
our recollection who have set their hearts upon the Presi- 
dential chair have gone down to the grave with disappoint- 
ment ? They were poor, blind men, and the world called 
them great. Oh, how foolish ; how blind. They didn't 
seek God ; they only sought one thing — greatness — posi- 
tion and office. They were great, brilliant, clever men, 
but when they were summoned into the presence of their 
God, what a wreck. Men so brilliant might have wielded 
an influence for the Son of God that would have lived in 
the hearts of the people for generations to come, and the 
streams of their goodness might have flowed long after they 
went to heaven. But they lived for the world and their 
works went to dust. 

But a great number of people don't care for business or 
politics, they only want a little money so as to get pleasure. 
How many men have been blinded by pleasure. A lady 
told me in the inquiry-room she would like to become a 
Christian, but there was a ball coming on, and she didn't 
want to become a Christian until after the ball. The ball 
was worth more than to her than the kingkom of God. For 
this ball she would put off the kingdom of God until it was 
over, forgetting that death might come to her in the mean- 
time and usher her into the presence of God. How blind 
she was, and many are just like her. The kingdom of God 
is offered to them without money and without price, and 
yet for a few days of pleasure they forfeit heaven and 
everything dear to their eternity. I was talking to a lady 
who, with the tears running down her cheeks upon my 
speaking to her, said : " The fact is, if I become a Christian 
I have to give up all pleasure. I cannot go to a theatre \ 
I cannot read any novels ; I cannot play cards. I have 



i 7 4 GREAT JOY. 

nothing else to do." Oh, what blindness ! Look at the 
pleasure of being taken into the Lord's vineyard, and the 
joy and luxury of working for Him and leading souls to 
Christ. And people with their eyes wide open would 
rather bend down to the god of pleasure than become 
Christians. 

Then there is the god of fashion. How many women 
just devote their lives to it. They want to see the last 
bonnet, the last cloak, the last dress. They can't think of 
anything else. Said a lady to me, " I am always thinking 
of fashion ; it don't matter if I get down on my knees to 
pray , I am always thinking of a new dress. You may 
laugh at this, but it's true. Pleasure in the ball-room and 
fashion is the god of a great many people. Oh, that we 
may lift our eyes to something nobler. Suppose you don't 
have so many dresses, and give something to the poor, you 
will have something then which will give you joy and com- 
fort that will last you always. I pity the man or woman 
who lives for the day like the buttterfly — those whose 
minds are fixed upon fashion and pleasure, and have no 
time to look to their perishing soul. A good many people 
don't know they are hid. Look at that young man. You 
call him a fast young man. He has got a salary of $1,000, 
and it costs him $3,000 to live. Where does he get the 
money? Where does it come from? His father cannot 
give it him, because he is poor. His employer begins to 
get suspicious. "I only give him $1,000 a year, and he is 
living at the rate of $3,000." By and by he looks into his 
account book and finds it overdrawn. Thus he is ruined — 
character blasted. Oh, how many are of this stamp in 
Chicago ! It is only a question of time. How many young 
men have we got just living beyond their income — taking 
money out of their employer's drawer. They say, " Well, 
I am going to the theater to-night, and. I will just take a 
dollar ; will put it back next week." But when next week 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 



175 



comes he hasn't put it back, and takes another dollar. He 
has taken $2 now. He keeps on draw, draw, drawing, 
when by and by it all comes out. He loses his place, 
don't get any letters of recommendation, and the poor man 
is ruined. My friends, this is not the description of an 
isolated case. This class is all over the country. I wish 
I could send you the letters I get about just such cases. I 
got one the other day from a young mother with a family 
of beautiful children. She told me how happy they had 
lived — husband, wife, and children, and how one night her 
husband came home excited, his face white with terror, 
and said, "I've got to fly from justice. Good-bye." He 
has gone from her, and she said it seemed as if she could 
die ; her husband disgraced and starving couldn't get any- 
thing to do. Her cry seemed to be " Help, help me." Is 
not the country full of such cases. Is it not blindness and 
madness for men to go on in this way. If any one is here 
to-night following in the way of these men, I pray God 
your eyes may be opened before you are led to death and 
ruin. 

You know we had a full meeting to-day, and the subject 
was Intemperance." How many young men are there who 
spend their time in the saloons of the city. I am afraid 
many will be led astray next Tuesday. I always dread an 
election day — I generally see so many young men beastly 
drunk. They are led away, and that is another quick road 
down to hell. May the young men see the folly of this, and 
on that day stand firm. May God open your eyes. How 
many young men are there whose characters have been 
blasted by strong drink. How many brilliant men in the 
Chicago bar have gone down to death by it. Some of the 
noblest statesmen, some of the most brilliant orators and 
men of all professions have been borne down to the drunk- 
ard's grave. May God open your eyes to show the folly of 
tampering with strong drink. Now, many men say, " I am 



176 GREAT JOY. 

not going down to the grave of a drunkard." They think 
they have strength to stop when they like. When it gets 
hold, there is nothing within us by which we can save our- 
selves. He alone can give you power to resist the cup of 
temptation: He alone can give you power to overcome its 
influence, if you only will believe Him. The god of this 
world has been trying to make you believe that man can do 
it himself, and Christ will have nothing to do with him. 
The god of this world is a liar. I come with authority to 
tell you — I don't care how far gone you are; don't care 
how blessed you may be — that the Son of God can and will 
save you if you only believe Him. If there is one here to- 
night under the power of strong drink come to-night. We 
lift up our voice to warn you. 

Look at that man in a boat on Niagara River. He is 
only about a mile from the rap] ds. A man on the bank 
shouts to him, " Young man,, young man, tile rapids are not 
far away, you'd better pull for. .the /"shore." "• You attend'to- 
your own business ; I will taKe^*cYre tt^niyseif," he' replies. 
Like a great many people here, and ministers, too, they 
don't want any evangelist here — don't want any help, how- 
ever great the danger ahead. On he goes, sitting coolly in 
his boat. Now he has got a little nearer, and a man from 
the bank of the river sees his danger, and shouts, " Stran- 
ger, you'd better pull for the shore ; if you go further you'll 
be lost. You can be saved now if you pull in." " Mind 
your business, and you'll have enough to do ; I'll take care 
of myself." Like a good many men, they are asleep to the 
danger that's hanging over them while they are in the cur- 
rent. And I say, drinking young man, don't you think you 
are standing still. You are in the current, and if you don't 
pull for a rock of safety you will go over the precipice. 
On he goes. I can see him in the boat laughing at the 
danger. A man on the bank is looking at him, and he 
lifts up his voice and cries, " Stranger, stranger, pull for 



SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS. 



177 



the shore ; if you don't you will lose your life ; " and the 
young man laughs at him — mocks him. That is the way 
with hundreds in Chicago. If you go to them and point 
out their danger they will jest and joke at you. By and by 
he says : " I think I hear the rapids — yes, I hear them 
roar ; " and he seizes his oars and pulls with all his 
strength, but the current is too great, and nearer and nearer 
he is drawn on to that abyss, until he gives one unearthly 
scream, and over he goes. Ah, my friends, this is the 
case with hundreds in this city. They are in the current 
of riches, of pleasure, of drink, that will take them to the 
whirlpool. Satan has got them blindfolded, and they are 
on their road to the bottomless pit. 

We hear some men say in a jesting way, " Oh, we are 
sowing our wild oats ; we will get over this by and by." I 
have seen men reap their wild oats. It's all well enough 
sowing, but when it comes to the reaping it's a different 
thing. I remember I went home one night and found all 
the people in alarm. They had seen a man come running 
down the street, and as he approached the house he gave 
an unearthly roar, and in terror they bolted the door. He 
came right up to my door, and instead of ringing the bell, 
just tried to push the door in. They asked him what he 
wanted, and he told them he wanted to see me. They said 
I was at the meeting, and away he ran, and they could 
hear him groan as he disappeared. I was coming along 
North Clark Street, and he shot past me like an arrow. 
But he had seen me, and turned and seized me by the 
arm, saying eagerly, " Can I be saved to-night ? The devil 
is coming to take me to hell at one o'clock to-night." " My 
friend, you are mistaken." Thought the man was sick. 
But he persisted that the devil had come and laid his hand 
upon him, and told him that he might have till one o'clock, 
and," said he : " Won't you go up to my room and sit with 
me ? " I got some men up to his room to see to him. At 

12 



I7 8 GREAT JOY. 

one o'clock the devils came into that room, and all the 
men in that room could not hold him. He was reaping 
what he had sown. When the Angel of Death came and 
laid his cold hand on him, oh, how he cried for mercy — how 
he beseeched for pardon. Ah, yes, young men, you may 
say in a laughing and jesting way, you are sowing your wild 
oats, but the reaping time is coming. May God show you 
to-night what folly it is — what a miserable life you are 
leading. May we lift our heart here to the God of all 
grace, so that we may see our lost and ruined condition if 
we do not come to Him. Christ stands ready and willing 
to save — to save to-night all those who are willing to be 
saved. Let us pray. 



REPENTANCE. 



You will find my text to-night in the seventeenth 
chapter of Acts, part of the thirtieth verse : " And now com- 
mandeth all men everywhere to repent" I have heard a 
number of complaints about the preaching here in the 
Tabernacle, that repentance has not been touched upon. 
The fact is, that I have never had very great success in 
preaching upon repentance. When I have preached it 
people haven't repented. I've had far more success when 
I've preached Christ's goodness. But to-night I will preach 
about repentance, so you will have no more cause of com- 
plaint. I believe in repentance just as much as I believe in 
the Word of God. When John the Baptist came to preach to 
that Jewish nation his one cry was " Repent ! repent ! " But 
when Christ came he changed it to "The blood of the 
Lamb taketh away the sin of the world." I would rather 
cry "The blood of the Lamb taketh away the sin of the world, 
than talk about repentance. And when Christ came we 
find Him saying " Repent ye," but He soon pointed them 
to something higher — He told them about the goodness of 
God. It is the goodness of God that produces repentance. 
When, upon the Day of Pentecost they asked what to do to 
be saved, we find Him telling men, " Repent, every one of 
you." When Christ sent His disciples out to preach, two 
by two, we find the message He gave them to deliver was, 
" Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It is 
clearly preached throughout the Scriptures. There is a 
good deal of trouble among people about what repentance 
really is. If you ask people what it is, they will tell you 

179 



180 GREAT JOY. 

"It is feeling sorry." If you ask a man if he repents, he 
will tell you, " Oh, yes ; I generally feel sorry for my sins." 
That is not repentance. It is something more than feeling 
sorry. Repentance is turning right about, and forsaking 
sin. I wanted to speak on Sunday about that verse in 
Isaiah, which says, " Let the guilty forsake his way, and 
the unrighteous man his thoughts." That is what it is. If 
a man don't turn from his sin he won't be accepted of God, 
and if righteousness don't produce a turning about — a 
turning from bad to good — it isn't true righteousness. 

Unconverted people have got an idea that God is their 
enemy. Now, let me impress this, and I told you the same 
the other night, God hates sin with a perfect hatred ; He 
will punish sin wherever He finds it, yet He at the same 
time, loves the sinner, and wants him to repent and turn 
to Him. If men will only turn they will find mercy, and 
find it just the moment they turn to Him. You will find 
men sorry for their misdeeds. Cain, no doubt, was sorry, 
but that was not true repentance. There is no cry record- 
ed in the Scriptures as coming from him, O my God, 
O my God, forgive me." There was no repentance in his 
only feeling sorry. Look at Judas. There is no sign that 
he turned to God — no sign that he came to Christ asking 
forgiveness. Yet, probably, he felt sorry. He was, very 
likely, filled with remorse and despair ; but he didn't re- 
pent. Repentance is turning to him who loved us and 
gave Himself for us. Look at King Saul, and see the 
difference between him and King David. David fell as low 
as Saul and a good deal lower — he fell from a higher 
pinnacle, but what was the difference between the two ? 
David turned back to God and confessed his sin and got 
forgiven. But look at King Saul. There was no repent- 
ance there, and God couldn't save him till he repented. 
You will find, all through the Scriptures, where men have 
repented God has forgiven them. Look at that publican 



REPENTANCE. 181 

when he went up to pray ; he felt his sin so great that he 
couldn't look up to heaven — all he could do was to smite 
his heart and cry " God forgive me a sinner." There was 
turning to God — repentance, and that man went down to 
his home forgiven. Look at that prodigal. His father 
couldn't forgive him while he was still in a foreign land and 
squandering his money in riotous living, but the moment 
he came home repentant, how soon that father forgave 
him — how quick he came to meet him with the word of 
forgiveness. It wouldn't have done any good to forgive 
the boy while he was in that foreign country unrepentant. 
He would have despised all favors and blessings from his 
father. That is the position the sinner stands toward God. 
He cannot be forgiven and get His blessing, until he comes 
to God repenting of all his sins and asking the blessing. 

Now, we read in Scripture that God deals with us as 
a father deals with a son. Fathers and mothers, you who 
have children, let me ask by way of illustration, suppose 
you go home, and you find that while you have been here 
your boy has gone to your private drawer and stolen $5 of 
your money. You go to him and say : " John, did you take 
that money?" "Yes, father, I took that money," he 
replies. When you hear him saying this without any 
apparent regret you won't forgive him. You want to get 
at his conscience; you know it would do him an injury to 
forgive him unless he confesses his wrong. Suppose he 
won't do it. "Yes," he says, "I stole your money, but I 
don't think I've done wrong." The mother cannot, the 
father cannot forgive him, unless he sees he has done 
wrong, and wants forgiveness. That's the trouble with 
the sinners in Chicago. They've turned against God, 
broken His commandments, trampled His law under their 
feet, and their sins hang upon them ; until they show signs 
of repentance their sin will remain. But the moment they 
see their iniquity and come to God, forgiveness will be given 



182 GREAT JOY. 

them and their iniquity will be taken out of their way. 
Said a person to me the other day, " It is my sin that stands 
between me and Christ." "It isn't," I replied, "it's 
your own will." That's what stands between the sinner 
and forgiveness. Christ will take all your iniquities away 
if you will. Men are so proud that they won't acknowledge 
and confess before God. Don't you see on the face of it, 
if your boy won't repent you cannot forgive him, and how 
is God going to forgive a sinner if he don't repent ? If 
He was allowing an unrepentant sinner into His kingdom, 
there would be war in heaven in twenty-four' hours. You 
cannot live in a house with a boy who steals everything he 
can lay his hands on. You would have to banish him from 
your house. Look at King David with his son Absalom. 
After he had been sent away he gets his friends to inter- 
cede for him to get him back to Jerusalem. They succeed- 
ed in getting him back to the city, but someone told the 
King that he hadn't repented, and his father would not 
see him. After he had been in Jerusalem some time, try- 
ing his best to get into favor and position again without 
repentance, he sent a friend, Joab, to the king, and told 
him to say to his father : " Examine me, and if you find 
no iniquity in me, take me in." He was forgiven, but the 
most foolish thing King David ever did was to forgive- that 
young prince. What was the result ? He drove him from 
the throne. That's what the sinner would do if he got in- 
to heaven unrepentant. He would just drive God from the 
throne — tear the crown from Him. No unrepentant sinner 
can get into the kingdom of heaven. 

Ah, some people say, " I believe in the mercy of God ; 
I don't believe God will allow one to perish ; I believe 
everyone will get to heaven. Look at those antedeluvians. 
Do you think He swept all those sinners, all those men and 
women who were too wicked to live on earth — do you be- 
lieve He swept them all into heaven, and left the only 



REPENTANCE, ^3 

righteous man to wade through the flood ? Do you think 
He would do this, and yet many men believe all will go 
into heaven. The day will come when you will wake up 
and know that you have been deceived by the devil. No 
unrepentant sinner will ever get into heaven ; unless they 
forsake their sin they cannot enter there. The law of God 
is very plain on this point : " Except a man repent.'' 
That's the language of Scripture. And when this is so 
plainly set down, why is it that men fold their arms and 
say, "God will take me into heaven anyway." Suppose a 
governor elected to-day comes into office in a few months, 
and he finds a great number of criminals in prison, and he 
goes and says : " I feel for those prisoners. They cannot 
stay in jail any longer." Suppose some murders have been 
committed, and he says : " I am tender hearted, I can't 
punish those men," and he opens the prison door and lets 
them all out. How long would that governor be in his 
position ? These very men who are depending on the 
mercy of God would be the first to raise their voice against 
that governor. These men would say, " These murders 
must be punished or society will be imperiled ; life will 
not be safe ; " and yet they believe in the mercy of God 
whether they repent or not. My dear friends, don't go on 
under that delusion ; it is a snare of the devil. I tell you 
the word of God is true, and it tells us " Except a man re- 
pent " theie is not one ray of hope held out. May the 
Spirit of God open your eyes to-night and show you the 
truth — let it go into your hearts." Let the wicked forsake 
his way and the unrighteous his thoughts. 

Now, my friends, repentance is not fear. A great many 
people say I don't preach up the terrors of religion. I 
don't want to — don't want to scare men into the kingdom 
of God. I don't believe in preaching that way. If I did 
get some in that way they would soon get out. If I wanted 
to scare men into heaven I would just hold the terror of 



1 84 GREATJOY. 

hell over their heads and say, " go right in." But that's 
not the way to win men. They don't have any slaves in 
heaven. They are all sons, and they must accept salva- 
tion voluntarily. Terror never brought a man in yet. 
Look at a vessel tossed upon the billows, and sailors think 
it is going to the bottom and death is upon them. They 
fall down on their knees, and you would think they were 
all converted. They ain't converted ; they're only scared. 
There's no repentance there, and as soon as the storm is 
over and they get on shore, they are the same as ever. All 
their terror has left them — they've forgotten it, and they 
fall into their old habits. How many men have, while 
lying on a sick bed, and they thought they saw the terrors 
of death gathering around them, made resolutions to live 
a new life if they only get well again ; but the moment 
they get better they forget all about their resolutions. It 
was only scare with them ; that's not what we want to feel. 
Fear is one thing, and repentance is another. True repen- 
tance is the Holy Ghost showing sinners their sin. That's 
what we want. May the Holy Ghost reveal to each one 
here to-night out of Christ their lost condition unless they 
repent. 

If God threw Adam out of Eden on account of one sin, 
how can you expect to get into the heavenly paradise with 
ten thousand ? I can imagine someone saying, " I haven't 
got anything to repent of." If you are one of those Phari- 
sees, I can tell you that this sermon will not reach your 
heart. I would like to find one man who could come up 
here and say, " I have no sin." If I was one of those who 
thought I had no sin to repent of, I'd never go to church : 
I would certainly not come up to the Tabernacle. But 
could you find a man walking the streets of Chicago who 
could say this honestly. I don't believe there's a day 
passed over my head during the last twenty years but 
when night came I found I had some sin to repent of. 



REPENTANCE. ^5 

It is impossible for a man to live without sinning, there 
are so many things to draw away the heart and affections 
of men from God. I feel as if I ought to be repenting all 
the time. Is there a man here who can say honestly, " 1 
have not got a sin that I need ask forgiveness for ? I 
haven't one thing to repent of ? " Some men seem to 
think that God has got ten different laws for each of those 
ten commandments, but if you have been guilty of break- 
ing one you are guilty of breaking all. If a man steals 
$5 and another steals $500, the one is as guilty of theft 
as the other. A man who has broken one commandment 
of God is as guilty as he who has broken ten. If a man 
don't feel this, and come to Him repentant and turn his 
face from sin toward God there is not a ray of hope. No- 
where can you find one ray from Genesis to Revelation. 
Don't go out of this Tabernacle saying, " I have nothing 
to repent." I heard of a man who said he had been con- 
verted. A friend asked him if he had repented. " No," 
said he, " I never trouble my head about it." My friends, 
when a man becomes converted the work has to be a little 
deeper than that. He has to become repentant, and try 
to atone for what he has done. If he is at war with any- 
one he has to go and be reconciled to his enemy. If he 
doesn't his conversion is the work of Satan. When a man 
turns to God he is made a new creature — a new man. 
His impulses all the time are guided by love. He loves 
his enemies and tries to repair all wrong he has done. 
This is a true sign of conversion. If this sign is not 
apparent his conversion has never got from his head to his 
heart. We must be born of the spirit, hearts must be 
regenerated — born again. When a man repents, and turns 
to the God of Heaven, then the work is deep and thorough. 
I hope that everyone here to-night will see the necessity 
of true repentance when they come to God for a blessing, 
and may the Spirit move you to ask it to-night. 



186 GREAT JOY. 

I can imagine some of you saying, " How, am I to repent 
to-night?" My friends, there are only two parties in the 
world. There has been a great political contest here to- 
day, and there have been two sides. We will not know 
before forty-eight hours which side has triumphed. There 
is great interest now to know which side has been the 
stronger. Now, there are two parties in this world — those 
for Christ and those against Him, and to change to Christ's 
party is only moving from the old party to the new. You 
know that the old party is bad, and the new one is good, 
and yet you don't change. Suppose I was called to New 
York to-night, and went down to the Illinois Central 
Depot to catch the ten o'clock train. I go on the train, 
and a friend should see me and say, " You are on the 
wrong train for New York. You 'are on the Burlington 
train." " Oh, no," I say, "you are wrong; I asked some- 
one and he told me this was the right train." " Why," 
this friend replies, " I've been in Chicago for twenty years, 
and know that you are on the wrong train," and the man 
talks, and at last convinces me, but I sit still, although I 
believe I am in the wrong train for New York, and I go 
on to Burlington. If you don't get off the wrong train 
and get on the right one you will not reach heaven. If 
you have not repented, seize your baggage to-night and go 
to the other train. 

If a man is not repentant his face is turned away from 
God, and the moment his face is turned toward God peace 
and joy follow. There are a great many people hunting 
after joy, after peace. Dear friends, if you want to find it 
to-night, just turn to God, and you will get it. You need 
not hunt for it any longer ; only come and get it. When I 
was a little boy I remember I tried to catch my shadow. 
I don't know if you were ever so foolish: but I remember 
running after it and trying to get ahead of it. I could not 
see why the shadow always kept ahead of me. Once I 



REPENTANCE. 187 

happened to be racing with my face to the sun, and I 
looked over my head and saw my shadow coming back of 
me, and it kept behind me all the way. It is the same 
with the Sun of Righteousness, peace and joy will go with 
you while you go with your face toward Him, and these 
people who are getting at the back of the Sun are in dark- 
ness all the time. Turn to the light of God and the reflec- 
tion will flash in your heart. Don't say that God will not 
forgive you. It is only your will which keeps His forgive- 
from you. 

My sister, I remember, told me her little boy said some- 
thing naughty one morning, when his father said to him, 
" Sammy, go and ask your mother's forgiveness.'" w I 
won't," replied the child. " If you don't ask your mother's 
forgiveness I'll put you to bed." It was early in the morn- 
ing — before he went to business, and the boy didn't think 
he would do it. He said " I won't " again. They un- 
dressed him and put him to bed. The father came home 
at noon expecting to find his boy playing about the house. 
He didn't see him about, and asked his wife where he was. 
" In bed still." So he went up to the room, and sat down 
by the bed, and said : " Sammy, I want you to ask your 
mother's forgiveness." But the answer was " No." The 
father coaxed and begged, but could not induce the child 
to ask forgiveness. The father went away, expecting cer- 
tainly that when he came home at night the child would 
have got all over it. At night, however, when he got home 
he found the little fellow still in bed. He had lain there 
all day. He went to him and tried to get him to go to his 
mother, but it was no use. His mother went and was 
equally unsuccessful. That father and mother could not 
sleep any that night. They expected every moment to 
hear the knock at their door by their little son. Now they 
wanted to forgive the boy. My sister told me it was just 
as if death had come into their home. She never passed 



^8 GREAT JOY. 

through such a night. In the morning she went to him 
and said : " Now, Sammy, you are going to ask my forgive- 
ness," but the boy turned his face to the wall and wouldn't 
speak. The father came home at noon and the boy was 
as stubborn as ever. It looked as though the child was 
going to conquer. It was for the good of the boy that 
they didn't want to give him his own way. It is a great 
deal better for us to submit to God than have our own 
way. Our own way will lead us to ruin ; God's way leads 
to life everlasting. The father went off to his office, and 
that afternoon my sister went in to her son about four 
o'clock and began to reason with him, and, after talking 
for some time, she said, "Now, Sammy, say 'mother.'" 
"Mother," said the boy. "Now say 'for.'" "For." 
" Now just say ' give.' " And the boy repeated " give." 
" Me," said the mother. " Me," and the little fellow fairly 
leaped out of bed. " I have said it," he cried ; "take me 
down to papa, so that I can say it to him." Oh, sinner, 
go to Him and ask His forgiveness. This is repentance. 
It is coming in with a broken heart and asking the King 
of heaven to forgive you. Don't say you can't. It is a 
lie. It is your stubborn will — it is your stubborn heart. 

Now let me say here to-night you are in a position to be 
reconciled to God now. You are not in a position to deny 
this reconciliation a week, a day, an hour. God tells you 
now. Look at that beautiful steamer Atlantic. There 
she is in the bay groping her way along a rocky coast. 
The captain don't know, as his vessel plows through that 
ocean, that in a few moments it will strike a rock and 
hundreds of those on board will perish in a watery grave. 
If he knew, in a minute he could strike a bell and the 
steamer would be turned from that rock and the people 
would be saved. The vessel has struck, but he knows 
now too late. You have time now. In five minutes, for 
all you and I know, you may be in eternity. God 



REPENTANCE. 189 

hangs a mist over our eyes as to our summons. So now 
God calls-*— now everyone repent, and all your sins will be 
taken from you. I have come in the name of the Master 
to ask you to turn to God now. May God help you to 
turn and live. Let us pray. 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US? 



Now I am not going to take a text to-night. I am going 
to take a subject, and that subject will be " What Christ is 
to us ; " and if you say when I get through that Christ is 
not what I try to make Him out to be, it will be your own 
fault and no one else's, because He is a thousand times 
more to every soul here than I can make Him out to be 
to-night. A man cannot tell what Christ is in a few mo- 
ments — cannot begin to express what Christ is to us. I 
remember talking on the same subject at a meeting in the 
north of England. I felt that I had not said enough about 
Him when I got through. When I went home I went with 
a Scotchman, and I was complaining and groaning over 
the meeting, and told him I had only got half through with 
my subject, when the Scotchman turned to me and said, 
" Ye dinna expect to tell a' aboot Christ in one hour, 
d'ye ? Why, 'twould tak a' eternity to do it, man." I thought 
I could get through in an hour, but, my friends, it cannot 
be done. I'm not going to talk to you an hour to-night, 
however, and now I would like to call your attention to the 
second chapter of Luke and eleventh verse : " For unto 
you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is 
Christ the Lord." That's what Christ offers to be to every 
soul that comes into this world. God gives Him to the 
world, "Unto you is born this day a Saviour." God gave 
Him to free us from our sins ; that is what Christ came 
into the world to do. To get Him we must first meet Him 
at Calvary as our Jesus, our purifier, our sanctification, our 
Redemption. We must first pass Calvary before we can see 



WHA T CHRIS T IS TO US ? 



19T 



Him as our Saviour. And He wants you to come there — 
He wants to be a Saviour to every soul in Chicago. He is 
not only a Saviour who takes us from the pit of hell, but He 
delivers us from sin. A great many people have a wrong 
idea of Christ. They think He only saves us from hell, 
but He keeps us from sin day by day. God knew a great 
deal better what the world needed than ourselves. There- 
fore He gave us Christ, not only to save us from death, 
but to free us from sin. He is not only a Saviour ; he is a 
Redeemer. Redemption is more real than salvation. I 
asked a man some time ago why he thought so much about 
a certain man. I noticed that he could not speak of him 
but tears came into his eyes, and so I asked him, "Why is 
it that you love that man as you do ? " " Why, Mr. Moody," 
he said, " that man saved me." He told me in confidence 
how he got involved, how he took what did not belong to 
him, thinking he could replace it in a few weeks, but when 
the time came found he could not. In a week or two ex- 
posure would come, and it would be sure ruin to him, wife 
and family. How he went to a friend and poured out his 
heart, and how that friend advanced him the money and 
paid the debt, and," he added, " I would be willing to lay 
down my life for that friend. He saved me." It was out 
of gratitude to that man that he was willing to give his life 
for him. When we appreciate what redemption is and 
what Christ has done for us, we are willing to lay down our 
life for him — sacrifice everything for His sake. 

Redemption is more. It is buying back, for we are told 
in Galatians, " He hath redeemed us from the curse." The 
curse of the law rests upon every son of Adam — " He hath 
redeemed us from the curse of the law." Redemption is 
buying back. He has bought us back from sentence of 
justice. We belong to Him — " He hath redeemed us by 
His blood." I remember I was going from my home to 
preach in a neighboring village. My brother was with me, 



I9 2 GREAT JOY. 

and I saw a young man driving before us. I said to my 
brother: "Who is that young man; I've never seen him 
before." " Do you see that farm, those beautiful buildings, 
do you see all these fields, and the pasture ? That is his 
farm. His father was a drunkard and squandered his 
money, buried his home in debt, and died. His mother 
had to go to the poor-house. That young man went away, 
earned money, came back and redeemed the farm and took 
his mother from the poor-house, and he is looked upon as 
one of the noblest young men in the country." That's 
what Christ is doing for us. Adam sold us very cheap, 
and Christ comes and redeems us — does it without any 
cost. He is more than a saviour and a redeemer — he is a 
deliverer. A great many people go to Calvary and believe 
He is their redeemer, but they forget that He came to de- 
liver us from all temptation, from all appetite, from all lust. 
Now, when God put the children of Israel behind the blood 
at Goshen they were safe. When they came to the Red 
Sea, and they heard the King of Egypt with his mighty 
army, his horsemen, and his chariots come rolling on to their 
destruction, it was then that the God of Heaven showed His 
power as a deliverer. He said to Moses, " Stretch out thy 
rod," and the sea opened and His chosen people passed 
over in safety. God is a deliverer to all His children, what- 
ever you may be. He is a great physician to us all, and He 
will deliver you from all your difficulties. 

In the fifth chapter of Mark, we see him as a deliverer. 
I do not think that God ever found harder cases in 
Chicago, than those were there. We have got hospitals 
for the incurables, and if they had had them in those days, 
these cases would have been put there. First look at 
that man who had his dwelling in the tombs. They tried 
to tame him, but he snapped the chains as Samson did 
the pillars. They tried to bind him, they tried to keep him 
clothed, but he tore his garments into shreds. There he 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US. 193 

was, a wild man and a terror to everybody. The children 
were afraid of him, and the women and men hearing his 
cries at night, dreaded to go near that spot. There he 
was, a slave of the devils. But Christ came to that part 
of the country. See how they tried to chain him, to bind 
him, to tame him ; but they all failed. But Christ came, 
and with one word, delivered him. One word, and those 
devils forsook him. And his countrymen hearing of the 
incident, came out. They did not go out to see what 
Christ had been doing, but they came out to look for their 
swine. A good many men here in Chicago value swine 
more than they do the salvation of souls. Let pork go up 
or down, and see what a commotion there would be. But 
if there are souls to save here to-night they would never 
trouble themselves. They came out to see the swine, and 
there they found the wild man sitting at the feet of Jesus, 
clothed, and in his right mind. When the man found him- 
self delivered, he wanted to go with the Saviour. That was 
gratitude. Christ had saved him, had redeemed him. He 
had delivered him from the hand of the enemy. And this 
man cried : " Let me follow You round the world ; where 
You go I will go." But the Lord said: "You go home 
and tell your friends what good things the Lord has" done 
for you." And he started home. I would like to have 
been in that house when he came there. I can imagine 
how the children would look when they saw him, and say : 
"Father is coming." " Shut the door," the mother would 
cry ; " look out ; fasten the windows ; bolt every door in 
the house." Many times he very likely had come home 
and abused his family, and broken the chairs and tables, 
and turned the mother into the street, and alarmed all the 
neighbors. They see him now, coming down the street. 
Down he comes till he gets to the door, and then gently 
knocks. You don't hear a sound as he stands there. At 
last he sees his wife at the window, and he says, " Mary I " 

!3 



194 GREAT JOY. 

" Why," she says, " why he speaks as he did when I first 
married him ; I wonder if he has got well ? " So she looks 
out, and says, "John, is that you?" "Yes, Mary," he 
replies, " it's me, don't be afraid any more, I'm well 
now." I see that mother, how she pulls back the bolts of 
that door, and looks at him. The first look is sufficient, 
and she springs into his arms, and clings about his neck. 
She takes him in and asks him a hundred questions — how it 
all happened — all about it. " Well, just take a chair, and 
I'll tell you how I got cured." The children hang back, and 
look amazed. He says : " I was there in the tombs, you 
know, cutting myself with stones, and running about in my 
nakedness, when Jesus of Nazareth came that way. Mary, 
did you ever hear of Him ? He is the most wonderful man. 
I've never seen a man like him. He just ran in and told 
those devils to leave me, and they left me. When He had 
cured me, I wanted to follow Him, but He told me to 
come home and tell you all about it." The children by- 
and-by gather about his knee, and the elder ones run to 
tell their playmates what wonderful things Jesus has done 
for their father. Ah, my friends, we have got a mighty 
deliverer — don't care what affliction you have. He will 
deliver you from it. The Son of God, who cast out those 
devils, can deliver you from your besetting sin. A man 
told me last night, in speaking about drunkards, the 
trouble is that the passion for drink becomes a disease, 
and when it does, there is no hope. That man didn't 
know the gospel, my friend. Christ is a physician who 
has never lost a case yet. We've got a great many fine 
physicians —how many of them can say : " I have never lost 
a case." Christ has never failed, and He has had some 
pretty hard cases. Just look at that woman suffering for 
years from an issue of blood. Probably she had visited 
all the physicians round — had gone clear up to Damascus 
and down to Egypt. Perhaps she had spent all her money 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US. 195 

in trying to get better, but instead had only grown worse. 
That's just the case with Christians to-day. Instead of 
her coming to Christ, she went to the physicians around. 
I can imagine one of her friends coming in and saying, 
" Have you ever heard of Jesus of Nazareth ? " " No." 
" Well, He is a great prophet. I have never seen Him 
myself, but they tell me He is in Jerusalem doing wonder- 
ful things. I heard of a man who was troubled with 
leprosy, and another with palsy, and they went to Him, and 
in a moment were cured. They say too, He gives sight to 
blind men." As her friend tells her these things, a ray of 
hope breaks upon the poor woman's soul, and she questions 
the friend further. " Yes, and I heard of another cure of 
a poor "cripple who had been lame for years, so lame that 
he had to be carried to the prophet. When they got there 
they found such a crowd that they had to cut a hole in the 
roof and let him down, and whenever He saw him He just 
touched him, and he was healed." " He must be a great 
physician. How much does He charge ? " " Don't charge 
you anything." And this is the trouble with a great many 
people to-day. They think they have something to do for 
the Lord — something to give him in return for the salva- 
tion He offers. "Do you mean to tell me He don't charge 
anything ? " " Yes, I tell you, He cures all the people 
who come to Him for nothing ! " " I never heard of such 
a thing in my life. Whenever He comes here I am going 
to see Him." By-and-by she hears that He is passing 
through her town, and she prepares to go. Her children 
probably come to her and urge her not to go. " Don't 
go to anymore physicians. You've been running after too 
many, and they've only made you worse." But she gives 
them a deaf ear. She wants to be blessed. I don't know 
what they called the women's garments in those days, but 
we will come down to the present. She gets down her 
old shawl. The doctor took all her monev, and she can't 



I9 6 GREAT JOY. 

afford to buy a new one. When she gets to where He is, 
she finds a crowd around Him — perhaps four or five times 
as many people as we have here. I can see that woman 
elbowing her way through the crowd as she says to her- 
self, " If I can only get near that man I know by His look 
He can bless me." There she goes, pushing her way 
through the crowd of able-bodied men standing between 
her and the Saviour. "Why don't you go away or stand 
still ? " they say to her ; " there are plenty more beside you 
who want to get near Him." But she keeps on, and by- 
and-by she is just about to touch Him, when some 
one is thrust in between her and the Saviour, and she is 
driven back. But she works her way on, and comes near 
enough again, and I can see that thin, pale hand as it 
comes from under that shawl, and it creeps to his garment 
— lo, in a moment she is well. Some one has said that He 
has got more medicine in this garment than there is in all 
the apothecaries' stores of the world. A mighty physician ! 
If you have a sick soul come up to Him. There is no 
case too bad for Him. I don't care if you have some sin 
to which you are a slave — He can heal you of it. Yes, 
my friends, He is a mighty physician, and can save all who 
come and seek His aid. I can imagine some of you say : I 
am a good deal worse than any you have spoken of. I 
am dead to everything that is pure and holy. I come 
here night after night, and those remarks never touch me. 
Those sweet songs never thrill me. I am dead. Well, 
right here we find the story of one who was dead, Jairus' 
daughter. When He came to the house they said he was 
too late. You and I have been too late, but Christ never. 
They forgot he was the resurrection and the life. When 
He went into that room with Peter and John, among the 
weeping mourners, He just said to that dead girl, " Dam- 
sel, I say unto thee, arise," and she was awakened from 
the sleep of death. If there is a dead soul here to-night, 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US. 197 

He can save you. He said at the creation, " Let there be 
light," and lo ! the light appeared. If He commands your 
dead souls to live they will surely live. Let your prayers 
be going up to God that your dead souls may be filled with 
the light of his presence. He said to that woman's son : 
"Young man, arise." Why, He could raise men out of 
the stones in the street. There is no limit to the power of 
the Lord God of Israel. If there is a dead soul here, He 
can fill it with purity. Our Saviour, our Redeemer, our 
Deliverer, our Physician is able to do this. He can 
quicken dead souls ; He can make them alive. 

You know when He took the children of Israel through 
the Red Sea and into the wilderness, He became their 
way. You hear people sometimes saying: " If I become 
a Christian I don't know what church I will join. I find 
the Roman Catholic Church saying that they are the only 
true church — the only Apostolic Church — and unless I join 
it they say I cannot enter heaven. Then the Baptists tell 
me I cannot get into heaven unless I become immersed ; 
the Episcopalian Church claims to be the only true church. 
So with the Presbyterians, Methodists, and I don't know 
really what way to take." Thank God, we need not be in 
darkness about that. He tells us, " I am the way." The 
greatest mistake of the present day is the following of this 
creed and that one, this and that church, and a great many 
listen to the voice of the Church instead of the voice of 
God. The Catholic Church, or any other, never saved a 
soul. The Son of God is the Saviour of the world. The 
very name of Jesus can save His people from their sins. 
He is a real personal Saviour, and if a man wants to be- 
come a Christian, let him put his eyes on that Saviour and 
he will be saved. You know that the children of Israel 
had a cloud going ahead of them. When the cloud moved 
they moved, when it stopped they stopped, and when it 
started they followed it. So, my friends, it is Jesus that is our 



I9 8 GREAT JOY. 

way, and if we follow His footsteps we will be in the right 
Church. Who could have led those chosen people through 
that wilderness better than God Almighty ? He knew of 
all dangers and difficulties. When they wanted bread, He 
opened His hand and gave it them ; when they wanted 
water, He commanded Moses to strike a rock, and, lo, the 
crystal stream gushed forth. Who could better lead them 
through the wilderness, and who could better lead us to 
heaven than Jesus ? A great many people don't like the 
old way our fathers taught. Well, the people in the days 
of Jeremiah didn't like the old way ; they hated it, and so 
He put them in slavery for seventy years.- The good old 
way our fathers taught is better than our own way. People 
say this Bible was good enough for ancient days, but we 
have men of culture, of science, of literature now, and its 
value has decreased to the people of our day. Now, give 
me a better book and I will throw it away. Has the world 
ever offered us a better book ? These men want us to give 
up the Bible. What are you going to give us in its place ? 
Oh, how cruel infidelity is to tell us to give up all the hope 
we have — to throw away the only book which tells us the 
story of the resurrection. They try to tell us it is all a 
fiction, so that when we lay our loved ones in the grave, 
we bid them farewell for time and eternity. Away with 
this terrible doctrine. The Bible of our fathers and mo- 
thers is true, and the good old way is true. When man 
comes and tries to draw us from the old to the new way, 
it is the work of the devil. But men say we have outgrown 
this way. Why don't men outgrow the light of the sun ? 
They shouldn't let the light of the sun come into their 
buildings — should have gas ; the sun is old, and gas is a 
new light. There is just as much sense in this as to take 
away the Bible. How much we owe the blessed Bible ! 
Why, I don't think human life would be safe in this city if 
it wasn't for it. Look at the history of the nations where 



WHAT CHRIST IS TO US. 199 

the Bible has been trampled under foot. Only a few years 
ago France and England were pretty nearly equal. Eng- 
land threw the Bible open to the world, and France 
tried to trample it. Now the English language is spoken 
around the world, and its prosperity has increased, while it 
stands foremost among nations. But look at France. It 
has gone down and down with anarchy and revolution. 
Let us not forsake the old way. The Chief Shepherd has 
gone in through the gates, and tells us to come in through 
Him. When I was in Dublin, I heard of a little boy who, 
while being taught in one of the mission schools, had found 
Christ. When he got home he tried to talk to his father 
and mother about his Redeemer. The little fellow sickened 
and died, and when I was there, four years after the death 
of that boy, the father might have been seen night after 
night reading his Bible. If you had asked him what he 
was looking for, he would have told you he was looking 
for the way his little son had taken to get into heaven. 
He was trying to find the way. My friends, our elder bro- 
ther has gone before us, and has taken his seat at the right 
hand of His God, and He won't leave us in darkness. 

I remember, a number of years ago, I went out of Chi- 
cago to try to preach. I went down to a little town where 
was being held a Sunday-school convention. I was a per- 
fect stranger in the place, and on my arrival a man stepped 
up to me and asked me if my name was Moody. I told 
him it was, and he invited me to his house. When I ar- 
rived, he said he had to go to the convention, and asked 
me to excuse his wife, as she, not having a servant, had to 
attend to her household duties. He put me into the par- 
lor, and told me to amuse myself as best I could till he 
came back. I sat there, but the room was dark and I could 
not read, and I got tired. So I thought I would try and 
get the children and play with them. I listened for some 
sound of childhood in the house, but could not hear a single 



200 GREAT JOY. 

evidence of the presence of little ones. When my friend 
came back I said : " Haven't you any children ? " " Yes," 
he replied, " I have one, but she's in heaven, and I ani 
glad she is there, Moody." " Are you glad that your child 
is dead ? " I inquired. He went on to tell me how he had 
worshipped that child ; how his whole life had been bound 
up in her, to the neglect of his Saviour. One day he had 
come home and found her dying. Upon her death he ac- 
cused God of being unjust. He saw some of his neighbors 
with their children around them. Why hadn't he taken 
some of them away ? He was rebellious. After he came 
home from her funeral he said : " All at once I thought I 
heard her little voice calling me, but the truth came to my 
heart that she was gone. Then I thought I heard her feet 
upon the stairs ; but I knew she was lying in the grave. 
The thought of her loss made me almost mad. I threw 
myself on my bed and wept bitterly. I fell asleep, and 
while I slept I had a dream, but it almost seems to me like 
a vision. I thought I was going over a barren field, and I 
came to a river so dark and chill-looking that I was going 
to turn away, when all at once I saw, on the opposite bank, 
the most beautiful sight I ever looked at. I thought death 
and sorrow could never enter into that lovely region. Then 
I began to see beings all so happy looking, and among 
them I saw my little child. She waved her little angel 
hand at me and cried, ' Father, father, come this way.' I 
thought her voice sounded much sweeter than it did on 
earth. In my dream I thought I went to the water and 
tried to cross it, but found it deep and the current so rapid 
that I thought if I entered, it would carry me away from 
her for ever. I tried to find a boatman to take me over, 
but couldn't, and I walked up and down the river trying 
to find a crossing, and still she cried : ' Come this way/ 
All at once I heard a voice coming rolling down,- ' I am 
the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh unto the 



WHAT 'CHRIST IS TO US. 201 

Father but by me.' The voice awoke me from my sleep, 
and I knew it was my Saviour calling me, and pointing the 
way for me to reach my darling child. I am now superin- 
tendent of a Sabbath-school ; I have made many converts; 
my wife has been converted, and we will, through Jesus as 
the way, see one day our child." 

Am I not speaking to some father to-night who has some 
loved one in yonder land ? Am I not speaking to some 
mother who has a little one in that happy land ? And if you 
could but hear their voice would they not be : " Come right 
this way ? " Am I not speaking to some here who have 
representatives there ? There's not a son here, if he could 
hear his mother's voice, but who would be told to come 
right that way. Thank God, we have all our elder brother 
there. Nearly one thousand nine hundred years have 
passed since He went there, but He is as constant to us 
now as He was when first He went there. Dear friends, 
as He calls us up to Him, let us turn our backs to this 
world. Let us take Christ as our redeemer, as our deliv- 
erer, as our physician, as our way, as our truth, and as our 
light. May the blessing of heaven fall upon us all to-night, 
and may every man and woman here who is out of the 
kingdom, accept Him and press into His dominions. Let 
us pray. 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 



You that were here last night may remember that I was 
talking about what Christ was to us. I did not finish that 
subject, and want to take it up again. I want to speak of 
Christ now as our keeper. Many people in the inquiry 
rooms complained that they could not hold out; they com- 
menced all right, but could not hold out. Of course they 
could not if they tried to do so of themselves. But, thank 
God, they had a keeper. A man, when asked what per- 
suasion he was, replied that he was of the same as St. Paul 
was, and he said : " I believe that he is able to keep that 
which is committed to him." That is a good denomina- 
tion, and I recommend it to your attention. What is this 
keeping ; what does it consist of ? If one of you had 
$100,000 in your pocket, and knew that fifteen or twenty 
thieves had their eyes on you, and wanted to rob you, 
what would you do ? You would find a safe bank, and 
put it in there and feel safe. Now, every one of you has 
a precious soul, which the devil is striving to rob you of, 
and you cannot be safe until you have given it into Christ's 
keeping. The lion of the tribe of Judah is the only one 
that can safely keep us. What does the Word say ? " I 
am the light of the world ; if any man follow me he shall 
have the light of life." Why are so many of us in dark- 
ness ? Because we will not follow the light — will not fol- 
low Christ. It does not matter who it is ; a man of talent 
and intellect is no better than any one else if he does not 
walk in the light. I remember during the second year of 
the war, when things looked very bad for the country, they 



CHRIST THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 



203 



had a meeting, and every one spoke gloomily and hung 
their heads like so many bulrushes. One old man, though 
gray-bearded and with a face that literally shone — he was 
a man who looked like Moses — and he commenced to up- 
braid them that they did not look toward the light ; that 
they should remember that if it was dark around them it 
was light higher up, where their elder brother was, and it 
only rested with them to climb higher. There is no dark- 
ness where Jesus is. Let us ask ourselves, let each one 
ask, " Am I a light in my family, among my companions ? " 
The Word said : " Ye are the light of the world." Are 
you, brethren ? Just consider over it. Let us keep our 
loins girded and our lamps burning, or people will stumble 
over us. Oh, my friends, if the light in us be darkness, 
how great is that darkness. If we would light the world 
up we must borrow the light ; we must take no glory to 
ourselves, but merely reflect the light of Jesus Christ. 
The Bible does not say, " Make your light shine before 
men," but " Let your light shine." Let it shine. What a 
concession to them, such sinners as they were. God sup- 
plies us with it for the asking. Oh, my friends, will you not 
ask for it ? And when you once have it, hundreds of thou- 
sands of others will see it and want it as well. Keep your 
lower lights burning, as Mr. Sankey has sung to you. 
Now I also like to think of Christ as a shepherd. The 
duty of a shepherd is to take care of his sheep. When a 
bear attacked David's flock, he seized his spear and slew 
the intruder, and your shepherd will take as much care of 
you. Oh, what joy in the news to those who can say, " the 
Lord is my shepherd." Think of the shepherd carefully 
counting his sheep at the close of the day ; one is missing ; 
what does he do ? Is he content with his ninety and nine, 
leave the missing? No, he safely houses the others, 
and then goes in search of the one which is missing. 
Can you not see him hunting for the lost one ; going over 



204 GREAT JOY. 

mountains and rocks and crossing brooks, and what joy- 
there is when the wanderer is found. Oh, what a shep- 
herd is that. He wants to be a shepherd to all you 
here to-night. Will you not accept Him ? The man who 
saw a shepherd calling his sheep by name, wondered if he 
could tell one from another, they all looked so much alike. 
When he enquired on the matter he was pointed to several 
little defects on the sheep ; one had a black spot, another 
a torn ear, another a bad toe ; one was cross-eyed, and so 
on. You see the shepherd knew his sheep by their defects, 
and I think it is so with our heavenly Father. He knows us 
all by our defects ; and yet with all our faults he loves us. 
You may ask, if He loves me, why does He afflict me ? 
Well, now, I once saw a drove of sheep looking very 
tired and weary, being hurried on by a shepherd and his 
dogs, and when they wanted to stop and drink at a brook 
by the wayside they were not allowed to, but driven on. I 
felt that it was very unkind of that shepherd ; but by and 
by they stopped before a pair of handsome gates, and the 
flocks were turned into beautiful green pastures, with a 
clear stream running through them. Then I knew that I 
had been hasty ; that the shepherd had not been unkind, 
but kind, in not allowing his sheep to drink from that 
muddy stream in the road, for he had been saving them 
and taking them on to something better. So with our 
heavenly Father, our Shepherd ; He is compelled to afflict 
us sometimes while leading'us into green pastures. Oh, 
brethren, let us give thanks that we have such a good shep- 
herd to guide and protect us, and though these afflictions 
may come upon us and seem hard at the time, let us re- 
member his great mercy and loving kindness, and bow and 
kiss the rod. Let us look to God for His blessing. 



WHAT SHALL I DO TO BE SAVED? 



Mr. Moody said his sermon should grow out of the 
question of the jailer to Paul and Silas : " What shall I do 
to be saved? "■ A man out of a position always wanted to 
know what to do to get his bread. How to get one's heav- 
enly bread was more important. What shall a man do to 
be saved ? Why, just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 
A man is not saved by doing. The sinner is not under the 
law, but under grace — the full, forgiving- grace of Jesus. 
Salvation is a gift. It can't be earned. A man will not 
be saved at all except by taking this priceless boon as a 
gift. The Christian would then work for God, because 
God had saved him. Faith without work was dead, but 
works were the fruit and not the seed of God's gift of sal- 
vation. A guilty sinner should have the glad news dinned 
into his ears over and over again. Just let him accept 
Christ, and He saves him. If any poor sinner would just 
believe this he could be saved before the benediction was 
pronounced. The Philippian jailer was saved, with all his 
house, that first night on meeting the apostle. Oh, would 
not some dying soul catch hold of the offered salvation ! 
A man just going over the rapids of Niagara would see 
death just an instant off, and would cry out, " Help ! help !" 
with all his force. Would, then, the apathetic soul within 
him be silent? God forbid ! Might God show the poor 
blind eyes the yawning gulf just ahead ! Seize the hand 
of Christ ! Lay hold, that is all. He will do the rest. He 
comes right down to you in your chair there, and entreats. 



206 GREAT JOY. 

Let Him save you ! His pleading voice sounds in your 
ears ! O, turn not away ! Christ's ability to do all things 
was unquestioned. He could save as easily as he said, let 
there be light. And he was as willing as able. Every 
obstacle, then, was out of the way, and all that was needed 
was just self-surrender. Eternal life was the awful prize. 
Oh, look and live ; lay hold and be saved. An aged 
woman, fallen into a pit, had exhausted every means to get 
out, but slipped back farther and farther after every effort. 
A star caught her gaze as she lay resigned to death at the 
bottom. Fainting away she still saw the star in her sleep. 
She awoke, and the star meant to her the salvation of 
Christ, and right then and there she caught hold of Jesus' 
love, and lo ! her limbs carried her right out of the pit. 
She had taken the Lord's hand, and, as he always will, He 
lifted her up, even from the death of this world. Could 
not the saving hand be taken by everyone present ? They 
should not be content with mere trying to be Christians. 
Trying wouldn't do. A decisive act of the will was needed, 
and then prompt obedience to the new resolution. Only 
let them resolve to take the water of life, and then put the 
cup at once to their lips. The drowning man seized the 
slab of wood as soon as he saw it. He didn't say, " I'll 
try," but he just seized hold. God's free gift was to drown- 
ing sinners. To-night would they not take God at His 
word, and become Christians ? Some might answer they 
were too sinful, but it was just the sins that needed for- 
giveness. The drunkard, the open blasphemer, the worst 
sinners, were precisely the ones that needed Jesus most. 
The well didn't need Him. A certain man who had cursed 
more of his neighbors than any hundred men together in 
the country, was saved by a single lecture from the speaker. 
It didn't matter, the poor blasphemer was told, if he had even 
cursed his wife and children at every meal, and cursed the 
mother who bore him, if he would just get down on his 



WHA T SHALL I DO TO BE SA VED ? 207 

knees and cry for pardon ; that, just like the thief on the 
cross, the worst sinner was God's beloved Son, and could 
be saved if only he would be. And that man took Christ 
at His word, and he is now a pillar of the church. Like a 
little child, let them cry out in bitter repentance, and just 
like a child believe the absorbing words, " Thy sins are 
forgiven thee." Jesus was the way of life. Oh, would not 
thousands press into the way of heaven that very night ? 
The gate was yet open. Hasten ere it close. 



CHRIST'S COMMAND.— 



You'll find my text to-night in the sixteenth chapter of 
Mark, fifteenth and sixteenth verses : " And He said unto 
them, Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to 
every creature ; and he that believeth and is baptized, 
shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned." 
I like these kinds of texts — they've got such a sweep in them; 
they take in everybody. You know the great difficulty is 
to make all people believe that you are preaching to them 
individually. A text like this to-night takes in everyone. 
It says, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel 
to ever}'- creature ; don't leave out one." When He de- 
livered this command to His followers He was on His 
way home — -to the land where all knew Him and all loved 
Him. Gethsemane, with its hours of agony and blood, was 
over. He could now look beyond it. He had been 
brought before Pilate and also before the Sanhedrim, and 
had been tried and condemned. All that was past. 
Calvary, with all its horrors, was over, and the empty 
sepulchre lay behind Him, and He stood with a little body 
of believers around Him, with a little handful of men, who 
had stood by Him in His conflict with the Pharisees and 
priests ; and now He was giving them His parting words — 
a mission as it were. It was the Captain of our salvation, 
telling His warriors what to do after He was gone. In a 
few minutes He was to be caught up into heaven. They 
were the words of a resurrected man — a man who had gone 
down and sounded the depths of the grave ; a man who had 
208 



CHRIST'S COMMAND. 209 

gone down and conquered the lion of hell, and now stood on 
resurrection ground as He said, " Go ye into all the world 
and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth 
and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not 
shall be damned." 

Now I want to ask you the question. Do you believe 
that He would send those men out to preach the Gospel 
to every creature unless He wanted every creature to be 
saved ? Do you believe He would tell them to preach it 
to .people without giving people the power to accept it ? 
Do you believe that the God of heaven is mocking men by 
offering them this Gospel and not giving them the power 
to take hold of it ? Do you believe He will not give men 
power to accept this salvation as a gift? Man might do 
that, but God never mocks men. And when He says, 
" Preach the Gospel to every creature," every creature can 
be saved if he will. For 1800 years the heralds of the 
cross have been crossing seas and fording rivers, have 
been enduring hardships and persecution, in testifying to 
the people these glorious truths of the Gospel. Their 
spirits have gone up amid flames and tortures, and they 
have died in prison because of their preaching of the 
Gospel. To-day we live in an open land, where the Gospel 
is as free as the air. Remember that it cost all God had 
to give it, and every poor, miserable sinner on the earth 
can be saved for nothing. It is free to all, but don't forget 
that it cost God the Son of His love, the Son of His 
bosom, to redeem a rebellious world. If you are saved 
bear this in mind, that it is a free gift, but it cost God every- 
thing. Its reading is that whosoever believes it within the 
sound of my voice can have it. Some people come to me 
and say, " Mr. Moody, don't you feel a great responsibility 
when you come before an audience like this — don't you 
feel a great weight upon your shoulders ? " " Well," I say, 
" no ; I cannot convert men ; I can only proclaim the 

14 



2io GREAT JOY. 

Gospel." Not only that, but I tell you that God gives me 
a mission to preach it to every creature — I don't care to 
what nationality you belong, what has been your early 
training, how far you are sunk in iniquity — I don't care 
who or what you may be, I tell you to-night you have either 
to receive the Gospel and be saved or reject it and be 
damned. That's the Scripture. I was talking to a man 
this morning, and I asked him, " Would you like to become 
a Christian ? " " No, sir." " You would rather be damned, 
eh ?" " Well, I wouldn't exactly like to put it that way," 
he replied. " Well," I said, " that's the way you're putting 
it." My friends, let's put it in plain English, so that we 
can get hold of it. Are there any here to-night who are 
willing to say coolly and calmly and deliberately, " I don't 
want salvation as a gift ; I don't want to be saved ? " 
Would you rather go down fighting God and the Son of 
His love than accept them and be saved ? Now, the invi- 
tation is to every one. " Go ye into all the world and 
preach the Gospel to every creature." It is so hard to 
make people believe it is for them — to make them take it 
right home. Mr. Spurgeon told me that he once went to 
his orphanage on a visit. He said that a great many of 
those orphans had uncles and aunts and cousins and sisters 
who brought them Christmas presents. While he was on 
this visit a little boy came to him and said, " Mr. Spurgeon, 
will you let me talk to you a minute?" "Yes, my boy; 
what is it you want ? " " Well," said he, " Mr. Spurgeon, 
suppose you were a poor little boy and had no aunts or 
cousins or sisters or brothers, and had nobody to bring you 
any presents, and you saw others who had uncles and aunts 
and cousins and sisters and who brought presents to them, 
wouldn't you feel bad ? " " Why, yes," replied Mr. 
Spurgeon. " That's me ; that's me," said the boy. He 
got Mr. Spurgeon right down to the point ; and so if men 
would just say : " This Gospel is for us ; I believe it is for 



CHRIST'S COMMAND. 2 II 

myself," there would be hope for them being saved. Now, 
I don't see how you can get away from this text to-night, 
it is put so plain. Don't reject it any longer, my friends, 
every time you hear it your heart is getting harder and 
harder, and you will, the longer you keep away, have more 
difficulty in bending your will to its acceptance. I tell you, 
you will have to do either of two things to-night — reject it 
or receive it. I remember a man upon hearing this getting 
up in a furious passion, and stamping up and down. " The 
idea of anyone saying we've got to receive it or reject 
it." He didn't like the plain statement. Well, my friends, 
can we tell you anything else ? The audience must be 
divided into two classes, those who will receive it and those 
who will reject it. It is for you to decide on which side 
you will be. As many as receive it He will give power to 
become the sons and daughters of men. 

The question is, What are you going to do with God's 
gift to-night? The question comes home to everyone within 
this building. What are you going to do with the gift of 
God's love. You must either trample Him under your feet 
and make light of what He has offered us, or you must 
receive Him as our way, our truth, our light. I was down 
at the Ohio Penitentiary a few years ago, and the chaplain 
said to me, " I want to tell you a scene that occurred some 
time ago. Our Commissioner went to the Governor of the 
State and asked him if he wouldn't pardon out five men at 
the end of six months who stood highest on the list for 
good behavior. The Governor consented, and the record 
was to be kept secret ; the men were not to know anything 
about it. The six months rolled away and the prisoners 
were all brought up — 1,100 of them — and the President of 
the commission came up and said : " I hold in my hand 
pardons for five men. I never witnessed anything like it. 
Every man held his breath, and you could almost hear the 
throbbing of every man's heart. ' Pardons for five men ;' 



212 GREAT JOY. 

and the Commissioner went on to tell the men how they 
had got these pardons — how the Governor had given them, 
but the chaplain said the surprise was so great that he told 
the Commissioner to read the names first and tell the reason 
afterward. The first name was called — ' Reuben Johnson ' 
— and he held out the pardon, but not a man moved. He 
looked all around, expecting to see a man spring to his 
feet at once ; but no one moved. The Commissioner 
turned to the officer of the prison and inquired : ' Are all 
the convicts here ? ' ' Yes,' was the reply, ' Reuben John- 
son, come forward and get your pardon ; you are no longer 
a criminal.' Still no one moved. The real Reuben John- 
son was looking all the time behind him, and around him to 
see where Reuben was. The chaplain saw him standing 
right in front of the Commissioner, and beckoned to him ; 
but he only turned and looked around him, thinking that 
the chaplain must mean some other Reuben. A second 
time he beckoned to Reuben and called to him, and a 
second time the man looked around. At last the chaplain 
said to him: ' You are the Reuben.' He had been there 
for nineteen years, having been placed there for life, and 
he could not conceive it would be for him. At last it began 
to dawn upon him, and he took the pardon from the Com- 
missioner's hand, saw his name attached to it, and wept 
like a child." This is the way that men make out pardons 
for men ; but thank God, we have not to come to-night 
and say we have pardons for only five men — for those who 
behaved themselves. We have assurance of pardon for 
every man. " Whosoever will let him drink of the water of 
life " — it is offered to every thief and harlot, to every 
gambler and drunkard ; salvation for every one. Salvation 
is offered to every man, woman, and child. 

I can just imagine the scene as those warriors of the 
cross stood around Christ, the tears trickling down the 
cheeks of Peter as he says, upon hearing the command. 



CHRIST'S command: 213 

"You don t mean, when you command us to preach to 
every creature, that we are to tell the gospel to those un- 
believers — those murderers in Jerusalem ? " " Yes ; go first 
to those Jerusalem sinners." And at that scene of Pente- 
cost I can imagine a man coming up and saying, " Peter, 
I am the man spat in His face, you don't mean to say I can 
be saved ? " " Yes, every one of you, for He told me be- 
fore He left, preach the gospel to every creature." 
Another man comes up and says : " Peter, I am he who 
made the crown of thorns ; do you think I can be saved ? " 
" Yes, he will give you in return the crown of life." " I am 
the man," says another, " who drove the spear into His 
sid^." " Yes, I know it," replies Peter, " for I saw you doing 
it ; but even you can be saved." My friends, if those Jer- 
usalem sinners can be saved there is hope for the sinners 
of Chicago. One man in drawing that scene, said he could 
fancy Peter saying, " Surely you don't mean that we are to 
go back to Jerusalem and preach to those men who sacri- 
ficed you — who spat in your face ? " " Yes, hunt them up ; 
hunt up the man who drove the spear into my side, and 
tell him in its place I will put a sceptre in his hand if he 
will accept salvation from me ; unto that man who made a 
crown of thorns for my head, say I will give a crown of 
glory ; tell them there is forgiveness for all." Oh my friend, 
the gospel is for every creature. Take salvation as a gift. 
It is for you. God says plainly He does not will any 
one to death — He wants all to be saved. 

When I was east a few years ago Mr. Geo. H. Stewart 
told me of a scene that occurred in a Pennsylvania prison 
when Governor Pollock, a Christian man, was Governor 
of that State. A man was tried for murder, and the judge 
had pronounced sentence upon him. His friends had tried 
every means in their power to procure his pardon. -They 
had sent deputation after deputation to the Governor, but 
he had told them all that the law must take its course, 



2i 4 GREAT JOY. 

When they began to give up all hope, the Governor went 
down to the prison and asked the Sheriff to take him to 
the cell of the condemned man. The Governor was con- 
ducted into the presence of the criminal, and he sat down 
by the side of his bed and began to talk to him kindly — 
spoke to him of Christ and heaven, and showed him that 
although he was condemned to die on the morrow by 
earthly judges, he would receive eternal life from the 
Divine Judge if he would accept salvation. He explained 
the plan of salvation, and when he left him he committed 
him to God. When he was gone the Sheriff was called to 
the cell by the condemned man. " Who was that man," 
asked the criminal, " who was in there and talked so kindly 
to me .? " " Why," said the Sheriff, " that was Governor 
Pollock." " Was that Governor Pollock ? O, Sheriff, why 
didn't you tell me who it was ? If I had known that was 
him I would'nt have let him go out till he had given me 
pardon. The Governor has been here — in my cell — and I 
didn't know it," and the man wrung his hands and wept 
bitterly. My friends, there is one greater than a Governor 
here to-night to tell you He is here. You haven't got to 
go to heaven to bring Him down. He is here now waiting 
for your acceptance. You can be sa^ed for time and 
eternity if you will. My friends, what will you do ? Ac- 
cept Him and receive the crown of glory, or reject Him 
and be lost ? It rests with you to decide. 



THE CONVERSION OF SAUL. 



You who were here last night know that I was speaking 
on the Prodigal Son ; to-night I want to take up another 
man for my text — the one we have been speaking about ; 
a much harder case than the prodigal, because he didn't 
think he needed a Saviour. You needn't have talked a 
great while to that prodigal before you could have con- 
vinced him that he needed a Saviour. It is easy to reach 
a prodigal's heart when he reaches the end of his rope. 
This man stood high in the estimation of the people — he 
stood, as it were, at the top round of the ladder, while the 
prodigal was at the bottom. This man was full of self- 
righteousness, and if you had tried to pick out a man in 
Jerusalem as a hopeless case, so far as accepting Jesus of 
Nazareth as a Saviour, you would have picked out Saul. 
He was the most utterly hopeless case you could have 
found. I would sooner have thought of the conversion of 
Pilate than of this man. When they were putting to death 
the martyrs to the cross he had cheered on the murderers ; 
but in spite of all this we find the Son of God coming 
and knocking at his heart, and it was not long before He 
received Him as his Saviour. You can see him as he goes 
to the chief priests of Jerusalem, getting the necessary 
documents that he might go to Damascus, that he might 
go to the synagogue there and get all who were calling upon 
the Lord Jesus Christ cast into prison. He was going to 
stamp out the teachers of the new gospel. One thing that 
made him so mad probably was that when the disciples 
were turned out of Jerusalem, instead of stopping they 

ai5' 



2i6 GREAT JOY. 

went all around and preached. Philip went down to 
Samaria, and probably there was a great revival there, and 
the news had come from Damascus that the preachers had 
actually reached that place. This man was full of zeal 
and full of religion. He was a religious man, and no 
doubt he could say a prayer as long as any one in Jerusa- 
lem. He had kept the laws faithfully, and been an honest 
and upright man. The people then would never have 
dreamed of him requiring a Saviour. A good many people 
right here in Chicago would say, " He is good enough. 
To be sure he don't believe in Jesus Christ, but he is a 
good man." And there's a good many in Chicago who 
don't believe in Him. They think if they pay their debts 
and live a moral fife they don't need to be converted. 
They don't want to call upon Him ; they want to get Christ 
and all his teaching out of the way as this man did. That's 
what they have been trying to do for eighteen centuries. 
He just wanted to stamp it out with one swoop. So he 
got the necessary papers, and away he went down to 
Damascus. Suppose, as he rode out of the gate of Jerusa- 
lem on his mission, any one had said to him : " You are 
going down to prosecute the preachers of Christ, but you'll 
come back a preacher yourself." If a man said this he 
would not have had his head on his shoulders five minutes. 
He would have said, " I hate Him ; I abhor Him ; that's 
me." He wants to get Christ and his disciples out of the 
way. He was no stranger to Christ ; he knew His work- 
ing ; for as Paul said to Agrippa, " This thing was not 
done in -a corner." He knew all about Christ's death. 
Probably he was acquainted with Nicodemus and the 
members of the Sanhedrim who were against Christ. Per- 
haps he was acquainted with Christ's disciples, and with 
all their good deeds. Yet he had a perfect hatred for the 
gospel and its teachers, and he was going down to Damas- 
cus just to have all those Christians put in prison. You 



THE CONVERSION OF SA UL. 217 

see him as he rides out "of Jerusalem with his brilliant 
escort, and away he goes through Samaria, where Philip 
was. He wouldn't speak to a Samaritan, however. The 
Jews detested the Samaritans. The idea of him speaking 
to an adulterous Samaritan would have been ridiculous to 
him. So he rode proudly through the nation, with his 
head raised, breathing slaughter to the children of God. 
Damascus was about one hundred and thirty-eight miles 
from Jerusalem, but we are not told how long he took for 
that journey. Little did he think that nineteen hundred 
years after, that in this country, then wild, there would be 
thousands of people gathered just to hear the story of his 
journey clown to Damascus. He has arrived at the gates 
of the city and he has not got cooled off, as we say. He 
is still breathing revenge. See him as he stands before 
that beautiful city. Some one has said that this is the most 
beautiful city in the world, and we are told that when 
Mohammed came to it he turned his head away from it, 
lest the beauty of it would take him from his God. So 
this young man comes to the city, and he tells us the hour 
when he reached it. He never forgets the hour, for it was 
then that Christ met him, He says he "saw in the way a 
light from heaven above the brightness of the sun ; " he 
saw the light of heaven and a glimpse of that light struck 
him to the ground. And when God speaks to the sinner 
that's where he ought to be. Every man ought to fall on 
his face. From that light a voice called, " Saul, Saul." 
Yes, the Son of God knows his name. Sinner, God knows 
your name. He knows all about you. He knows the 
street you live in, the number of your house, because he 
told where Ananias lived when Paul went there. " Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? " How the words must 
have gone down to his soul. He stopped. The words 
were to him. And I find preaching is not attended with 
much good till men just stop and take the gospel to them- 



2i8 GREAT JOY. 

selves. May every sinner here to-night hear Christ calling 
you by name. We want a personal Christ. Well, when 
the question was put to him, " Why persecutest thou Ale ? " 
could he give a reason ? Is there any sinner can give a 
reason for persecuting Christ? Oh, why do you persecute 
Christ ? I can imagine some of you saying, " I never per- 
secuted Christ. I have a great many sins ; I swear some- 
times, sometimes drink, but I always speak respectfully 
of Christ." Do you? Do you never speak disrespectfully 
of His disciples and God's children ? Remember if you 
speak disrespectfully of them you treat Him with disres- 
pect. When Christ asked him this question, " Why perse- 
cutest thou Me ? " He might have added, " I lived on the 
earth thirty years, and I never did you any hurt, I never 
did you any injury ; I never even injured your friends : I 
came into the world to bless you. Why persecutest thou 
me ? " Why, my friends, all the blessings you ever got 
came from Him, why can't you live for Him ; why do you 
go on hating Christ ? Is there a man in this assembly 
who can give a reason why he don't love Him? Is there 
any reason to be found in the wide, wide world why men 
and women should not love Christ ? 

I remember hearing of a Sabbath school teacher who 
had lead every one of her children to Christ. She was a 
faithful teacher. Then she tried to get her children to go 
out and bring other children into the school. One day 
one of them came and said she had been trying to get the 
children of a family to come to the school, but the father 
was an infidel, and he wouldn't allow it. " What is an 
infidel ? " asked the child. She had never heard of an 
infidel before. The teacher went on to tell her what an 
infidel was, and she was perfectly shocked. A few mornings 
after the girl happened to be going past a post-office on her 
way to school, and she saw the infidel father coming out. 
She went up to him and said, " Why don't you love 



THE CONVERSION OF SAUL. 



2T9 



Jesus ? " If it had been a man who had said that to him 
probably he would have knocked him down. He looked 
at her and walked on. A second time she put put the 
question. " Why don't you love Jesus ? " He put out his 
hand to put her gently away from him, when, on looking 
down he saw her tears. " Please, sir, tell me why you 
don't love Jesus ? " He pushed her aside and away he 
went. When he got to his office he couldn't get this question 
out of his mind. All the letters seemed to read, " Why 
don't you love Jesus ? " All the men in his place of 
business seemed to say, " Why don't you love Jesus ? " 
When he tried to write his pen seemed to shape the word, 
" Why don't you love Jesus ? " He couldn't rest, but on the 
street he went to mingle with the business men, but he 
seemed to hear a voice continually asking him, " Why 
don't you love Jesus ? " He thought when night came and 
he got home with his family he would forget it ; but he 
couldn't. He complained that he wasn't well, and went 
to bed. But when he laid his head on the pillow that 
voice kept whispering, (l Why don't you love Jesus ? " He 
couldn't sleep. By and by, about midnight, he got up 
and said, " I will get a Bible and find where Christ 
contradicts Himself and then I'll have a reason, and he 
turned to the book of John. My friends, if you want 
a reason for not loving Christ, don't turn to John. He 
knew Him too long. I don't believe a man can read the 
gospel of John without being turned to Christ. Well, he 
read through and found no reason why he shouldn't love 
Him, but he found many reasons why he should. He read 
this book and before morning he was on his knees, and 
that question put by that little child led to his conversion. 
My friends, if you make up your minds not to go to sleep 
to-night without a good reason why you shouldn't love Him, 
you will love Him. There is no reason, as I said before, in 
the wide, wide world, why you shouldn't love Christ. Go 



220 GREAT JOY. 

down to the dark corners of the earth — even to hell, and 
ask them there if they can give you any reason for not 
loving Christ. My friends, the lost spirits can give you no 
reason. Neither in earth or in hell can any reason be 
found for not loving Him. To-night put this question to 
yourselves : " What keeps me from coming to Christ ? " 
" Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? " Oh may the 
question go down to our hearts to-night, and may you not 
sleep till you can look up and say, " Christ is my Saviour, 
He is my Redeemer," and until you can see your title 
clear for one of those mansions He has gone to prepare. 

When this question was put to Saul, " Why persecutest 
thou me ? " he supplemented it by saying. " It is hard for 
thee to kick against the pricks." The thought I want to 
call attention to is this : " It is hard for thee to kick against 
the pricks." You and I would not have had any com- 
passion upon Saul if we had been in Christ's place. We 
would have said the hardship is upon the poor Christians 
in Damascus. But the Lord saw differently. He said, 
" It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." In those 
days when they didn't drive their camels with whips, they 
had a piece of stick with a sharp piece of steel at the end 
called a prick, and it was applied to the animal. A lady 
said to me some time ago, " It is easy to sin, but it is hard 
to do right," or, in other words, it is hard to serve God 
and easy to serve the devil. I think you will rind hundreds 
of people in Chicago who think this way. There is not a 
lie which ever came from hell so deceptive as this. It is as 
false as any lie the devil ever uttered. We want to drive 
that lie back where it came from. My friends, it is not true. 
God is not a hard master. He is a lenient one. What did 
Christ say to Saul ? " It is hard for thee to kick against the 
pricks. There is a period at which the sinner arrives when 
he sees the truth of this. How many men have said to me, 
" Mr. Moody, the way of the transgressor is pretty hard." 



THE CONVERSION OF SA UL. 221 

It is a common expression. I have been with men in 
court and in prison who have said this. It is not a hard 
thing to serve God if you are born of God ; but, my friends, 
it is a hard thing to serve Satan. The way of sin grows 
darker and harder to a man the longer he is in it. Before 
I came down I took up a paper, and the first thing I saw 
was an account of a Boston man who had forged, and it 
closed by saying his path was a hard, flinty one. 

Now, take up any class of sinners in Chicago. We've 
representatives here to-night. Take the harlot. Do you 
think her life is an easy one ? It is very short. The average 
one is seven years. Just look at her as she comes up to 
the city from the home where she has left sisters and a 
mother as pure as the morning air. She came down to the 
city and is now in a low brothel. Sometimes her mind goes 
back to the pure home where her mother prayed for her ; 
where she used to lay down her head on that mother's 
bosom, and she used to press the sweet face of her child to 
her own. She remembers when she went to Sunday school ; 
remembers when her mother tried to teach her to serve 
God, and now she is an exile. She don't want to go 
home. She is full of shame. She looks into the future 
and sees darkness before her. In a few short years she dies 
the death of a harlot, and she is laid away in an unknown 
grave. All the flattery of her lovers is hollow and false. 
Is her life a happy one ? Ask a harlot to-night, and she 
will tell you the way of the transgressor is hard ; and then 
ask the pure and virtuous if Christ is a hard master. Go 
ask that drunkard if his way is an easy one. Why, there 
was a man whom I knew who was an inveterate drinker. 
He had a wife and children. He thought he could stop 
whenever he felt inclined, but he went the ways of most 
moderate drinkers. I had not been gone more that three 
years and, when I returned I found that that mother had 
gone down to her grave with a broken heart, and that man 



222 GREATJOY. 

was the murderer of the wife of his bosom. Those children 
have all been taken away from him, and he is now walking 
up and down those streets homeless. But four years ago 
he had a beautiful and a happy home with his wife and 
children around him. They are gone, probably he will 
never see them again. Perhaps he has come in here to- 
night. If he has, I ask him : Is not the way of the 
transgressor hard ? Is it not hard to fight against Him ? Do 
not go against your Maker. Don't believe the devil's lies ; 
don't think God is a hard master. If you persist in wrong- 
doing, you will find out the truth of what was said to Saul, 
" It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." 

Look again at that rum-seller. When we talk to him he 
laughs at us. He tells us there is no hell, no future — there 
is no retribution. I've got one man in my mind now who 
ruined nearly all the sons in his neighborhood. Mother 
and father went to him and begged him not to sell their 
children liquor. He told them it was his business to sell 
liquor, and he was going to sell liquor to every one who 
came. The place was a blot upon the place as dark as 
hell. But that man had a father's heart. He had a son. 
He didn't worship God, but he worshipped that boy. He 
didn't remember that whatsoever a man soweth so shall he 
reap. My friends, they generally reap what they sow. It 
may not come soon, but the retribution wall come. If you 
ruin other men's sons, some other man will ruin yours. 
Bear in mind God is a God of equity ; God is a God of 
justice. He is not going to allow you to ruin men and then 
escape yourself. If we go against His laws we suffer. 
Time rolled on and that young man became a slave to drink, 
and his life became such a burden to him that he put a re- 
volver to his head and blew his brains out. The father 
lived a few years, but his life was as bitter as gall, and then 
went down to his grave in sorrow. Ah, my friends, it is 
hard to kick against the pricks. You may go out of the 



THE CONVERSION OF SAUL. 



223 



Tabernacle laughing at everything I say, but it is true as 
the God in heaven that the day of retribution will come. 
It is only a question of time. See that false-hearted liber- 
tine ! The day is coming when he will reap what he is 
sowing. He may not be called to reap it in this world, but 
he will be brought up before that bar of heaven, and there 
the harvest will be seen. These men who have got smooth, 
oily tongues go into society and play their part, and still 
walk around. If a poor woman falls, she's ruled out, but 
these false-hearted libertines still go up and down the world. 
The eyes of justice may not find them out. They think 
themselves secure, but they are deceiving themselves. By 
and by the God of heaven will summon them to give an 
account. They say then that God will not punish them, 
but the decree of heaven has gone forth, " Whatsoever a 
man soweth so shall he reap." 

One week ago I preached on the text, " Christ came to 
heal the broken-hearted." I told you just before I came 
down that I had received a letter from a broken-hearted 
wife. Her husband one night came in, to her surprise, and 
said he was a defaulter and must fly, and he went, she knew 
not where. He forsook her and two children. It was a 
pitiful letter, and the wail of that poor woman seems to 
ring in my ears yet. That night, up in that gallery, was a 
man whose heart began to beat when I told the story, 
thinking it was him I meant, till I came to the two children. 
When I got through I found that he had taken money 
which did not belong to him, intending to replace it, but he 
failed to do so, and fled. He said : " I have a beautiful 
wife and three children, but I had to leave her and come 
to Chicago, where I have been hiding. The Governor of 
the State has offered a reward for me." My friends, a 
week ago this poor fellow found out the truth of this text. 
He was in great- agony. He felt as if he could not carry 
the burden, and he said, " Mr. Moody, I want you to pray 



2 24 GREAT JOY. 

with me. Ask God for mercy for me." And down we went on 
our knees. I don't know if ever I felt so deeply for a man 
in my life. He asked me if I thought he should go back. 
I told him to ask the Lord, and we prayed over it. That 
was Sunday evening, and I asked him to meet me on the 
Monday evening. He told me how hard it was to go back 
to that town and give himself up and disgrace his wife and 
children. They would give him ten years. Monday came 
and he met me and said, " Mr. Moody, I have prayed over 
this matter, and I think that Christ has forgiven me, but I 
don't belong to myself. I must go back and give myself 
up. I expect to be sent to the Penitentiary ; but I must 
go." He asked me to pray for his wife and children, and 
he went off. He will be there now in the hands of justice. 
My friends, don't say the way of the transgressor is not 
hard. It is hard to fight against sin, but it is a thousand 
times harder to die without hope. Will you not just accept 
Christ ? Take Christ as your hope, your life, your truth. 
Let us pray. 



NAAMAN. 



We have for our subject this evening " Naaman." We 
are told in this chapter that we have just read that he was 
a great man, but he was a leper, and that spoiled him. He 
was a successful man, yet he was a leper ; he was a very 
valiant man, but he was a leper ; he was a very noble man, 
yet he was a leper. What a blight that must have cast on his 
path. It must have haunted him day and night. He was 
a leper, and there was no physician in Syria that could help 
him. It was an incurable disease, and I suppose he thought 
he would have to go down to the grave with that loathsome 
disease. We read that several companies had gone down 
to the land of Israel and brought down to Syria some 
poor captives, and among them was a little girl, who was 
sent to wait on Naaman's wife. I can imagine that little maid 
had a praying mother who had taught her to love the 
Lord, and when she got down there she was not ashamed 
to own her religion — she was not ashamed to acknowledge 
her Lord. One day, while waiting on her mistress, I can 
think of her saying, " Would to God your husband was in 
Samaria. There is a prophet there who would cure him." 
I can imagine her looking at the girl when she said this : 
" What ! a man in Israel can cure my husband ; you must 
be dreaming. Did you ever hear of a man being cured of 
the leprosy ? " " No," the girl might have said ; "but that 
is nothing. Why, the prophet in Samaria has cured many 
persons worse than your husband." And perhaps she told 
her about the poor woman who had such an increase of oil, 
and how her two boys were saved from slavery by the 

15 



226 GREAT JOY. 

prophet ; and how he had raised the child of that poor 
woman from the dead, and " if the prophet can raise any- 
body from the dead he can cure your husband." This girl 
must have had something about her to make those people 
listen to her ; she must have shown her religion in her life ; 
her life must have been consistent with her religion to make 
them believe her. We read that Naaman has faith in her 
word, and he goes to the king and tells him what he 
intends to do. And the king says ; " I will tell you what 1 
will do. I will give you letters to the king of Israel, and, 
of course, if any cure is to be effected, the king will know 
how to obtain it." Like a great many men now-a-days, they 
think if there is anything to be got it is to be got from the 
king and not from his subjects. And so you see this man 
starting out to the king of Israel with all his letters and a 
very long purse. I cannot find just now how much it was, 
but it must have been something like $500,000. The sum 
was a very large one likely. He was going to be liberal. 
He was not going to be small. Well, he got all his money 
and letters together and started. There was no small stir 
as Naaman swept through the gates of Syria that day with 
his escort. He reaches Samaria, and sends a messenger 
to the king announcing his arrival. The messenger delivers 
the letter to the king, and the first thing he does is to open 
the letter and begin to read it. I can see his brow knit as 
he goes on. "What is this?" he exclaims. " What does 
this mean ? This man means war. This Assyrian king 
means to have a war with me. Who ever heard of such a 
thing as a man cured of leprosy ? " and he rent his mantle. 
Everyone knew something was wrong when the king 
rent his mantle, and the news spread through the streets 
that they were on the eve of a war. The air was filled with 
war; everybody was talking about it. No doubt the news 
had gone abroad that the great general of Assyria was 
in the city, and he was the cause of the rumors, and by and 



NAAMAN. 227 

by it reached the prophet Elisha that he (the king) had 
rent his mantle, and he wanted to know the cause. When he 
had heard what it was he just told the king to send Naaman 
to him. Now you see the major-general riding up in grand 
style to the prophet's house. He probably lived in a small 
and obscure dwelling. Perhaps Naaman thought he was 
doing Elisha a great favor by calling on him. He had an 
idea that he was. honoring this man, who had no influence 
or position. So he rides up. A messenger is sent in to 
announce Major-General Naaman, of Damascus. But the 
prophet doesn't even see him. He simply tells the servant 
to say to him : " Go and wash in Jordan seven times." 
When the messenger comes to Naaman and he tells him 
this, he is as mad as anything. He considers it a reflection 
upon him — as if he hadn't kept his person clean. " Does 
the man mean to insinuate that I haven't kept my body 
clean — can't I wash myself in the waters of Damascus ? 
We've much better water than they have here. Why, if we 
had the Jordan in Syria we'd look upon it as a ditch. The 
idea — wash in that contemptible river." He's full of rage 
as he can be ; and he said; " Behold, I thought." That's 
the way with sinners ; they always say they thought. In 
this expression we can see he had thought of some plan, 
had marked out a way for the Lord to heal him. That is 
the way with nearly every man and woman in Chicago. 
They've got a plan drawn out, and because God does not 
come and save them according to their plan, they don't 
take Him. Keep this in mind, " My ways are not your 
ways, nor my thoughts your thoughts." If you look for 
Him to come in that direction, He will come the other 
way. " My ways are not your ways." He thought. My 
friends, no man gets into the kingdom of God till he gives 
up his thoughts. God never saved a man till he gave up 
his own thoughts and takes up God's. Yes, Naaman 
thought that the moment the prophet knew he was outside 



228 GREAT JOY. 

he would come out and bow and scrape, and say he was 
glad to see such a great and honorable man from Syria. 
Instead of that he merely sent out a messenger to tell him 
to go and wash in Jordan seven times. 

When we were in Glasgow we had an employer converted, 
and he wanted to get a man in his employ to come to our 
meetings, but he wouldn't come. If he was going to be 
converted he wouldn't be converted by those meetings. 
You know when a Scotchman gets an idea into his head, 
he is the most stubborn man you can find. He was deter- 
mined not to be converted by Moody and Sankey. Like a 
good many here, they say, " If I'm going to be converted, 
I ain't going to be converted down in that old taber- 
nacle." The employer talked and talked to this man, 
but couldn't get him to come. Well, we left Glasgow, and 
got away up to the north of Scotland — in Inverness — and 
he sent this man up there on business, thinking he might 
be induced to go into the meetings. One night we were 
singing " On the banks of that beautiful river," and he 
happened to be passing, and wondered where the sweet 
sounds were coming from. He came up finally, and I 
happened to be preaching that night on the very text, " I 
thought." He listened, and soon did not know exactly 
where he was. He was convicted ; he was converted and 
became a Christian. "I thought," how many people 
have said, " I'd never be converted by these meet- 
ings ; " " I'll never be converted in the Baptist Church • " 
" I will never be converted in the Presbyterian Church." 
A man makes up his mind not to go there, and he 
goes. A man must yield his own way to that of God. 
Now, you can see all along that Naaman's thoughts were 
altogether different from those of God. He was going to 
get the grace of God by showing favOrs ; and a good many 
men now think they can buy their way into the kingdom 
of God. My friends, we cannot buy the favor of heaven 



NAAMAN. 229 

with money. If you get a seat in the kingdom of heaven, 
you have to accept salvation as a gift. 

Then another thing he thought. He thought he could 
get what he Wanted by taking letters to the king, not the 
prophet. The little maid told him of the prophet, yet he 
was going to pass the prophet by. How many people 
would go into the kingdom of God if it wasn't for pride ! 
He was too proud to go to the prophet. But pride, if you 
will allow me the expression, got a knock on the head on 
this occasion. It was a terrible thing for him to think of 
obeying, going down to the Jordan and dipping seven 
times. He had got better rivers in Damascus, in his own 
wisdom, and says, " Can I not wash there, and be clean ? " 
He was angry, but when he got over it he listened to his 
servants. I would rather see people angry than see them 
go to sleep. I would rather see a man get as angry as 
possible at anything that I may say than send him 
to sleep. When a man's asleep there's no chance of 
reaching him, but if he is angry we may get at him. It is a 
good thing for a man to get angry sometimes, for when he 
cools off he generally listens to reason. So his servant 
came to him and said " Suppose He had bid thee do some 
great thing, wouldst thou not have done it ? " Probably 
had he told him to take cod liver oil for ten years he 
would have done it. If he had told him that he 
wanted as much money as Naaman had brought up, that 
would have been all right. But the idea of literally doing 
nothing — just to go down to Jordan and wash himself — it 
was so far below his calculations, that he thought he was 
being imposed upon. It is so in our days. How many 
people expect to get salvation by some sudden shock, some 
great event happening to them, or some sudden flash of 
light to break upon them. Some think that God's plan of 
salvation requires months to find out. They go on stumb- 
ling over its simplicity. And so his servant said : " If the 



230 GREAT JOY. 

prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou 
not have done it ? hadn't you just better go down and 
wash in Jordan ? " Perhaps he said : " If I go down to 
Jordan and am not cured, what will my enemies say when 
I go back to Damascus ? " But he was influenced by the ser- 
vant, and he went. That was one good thing in Naaman's 
character — he was influenced by an humble messenger. 
A good many people won't accept a messenger, because he 
is not refined and cultured and educated. My friends, 
never mind who brings the message. It is the message 
you want, not the messenger. If a boy was to bring 
me a telegraphic message with good news, I wouldn't no- 
tice the boy, wouldn't look to see whether he was white or 
black. It would be the message I would want. And so 
it was with Naaman. It was a little Hebrew girl who first 
told him to come to Samaria, and now he was told to wash 
by his servant. So he goes down and dips into the waters. 
The first time he rose he said : " I'd just like to see how 
much my leprosy has gone." And he looks, but not a bit 
has left him. "Well, I'm not going to get rid of my leprosy 
in this way ; this is absurd." " Well," said the servant, " do 
just as the man of God tells you ; obey him." And this 
is just what we are told to do in the Scriptures, to obey 
Him. The first thing we have to learn is obedience. Dis- 
obedience was the pit Adam fell into, and we have to get 
out of it by obedience. Well, he goes into the water a 
second time. If some Chicago Christians had been there, 
they would have asked, sneeringly, " Well, how do you 
feel now ? " He didn't see that he was any better, 
and down he went a third time ; but when he looked at 
himself, he had just as much leprosy as ever. Down he 
goes a fourth, fifth and sixth time. He looks at himself, 
but not a speck of it is removed. " I told you this," he says 
to his servant ; " look here ; I'm just the same as ever." 
" But," says the servant, "you must just do what the man 



NAAMAN. 2 $ I 

of God tells you to do — go down seven times." He takes 
the seventh plunge, and comes out. He looks at himself, 
and behold his flesh is as that of a little child. He says 
to his servant : " Why, I never felt as good as I do to-day. 
I feel better than if I had won a great battle. Look ! I'm 
cleansed. Oh, what a great day this is for me ! The lep- 
rosy has gone." The waters to him had been as death 
and judgment, and he had come out resurrected — his flesh 
as that of a little child. I suppose he got into his chariot, 
and away he went to the man of God. He had lost his 
temper, he had lost his pride, and he had lost his leprosy. 
That is the way now. If a man will only lose his pride, 
he will soon see his leprosy disappear — the leprosy will go 
away with his pride. I believe the greatest enemies of men 
in this world are unbelief and pride. I believe hundreds 
and thousands in Chicago would press into the kingdom of 
God if it were not for their pride. He goes back to the 
man of God, and takes his silver and gold. He offers him 
money. " I don't want your money," replies the prophet. 
If he had taken money, it would have spoiled the beautiful 
story. Naaman had to take back everything he brought 
from Damascus but his leprosy. The only thing that the 
sinner has that God wants is his sins, and if you let him 
take them to-night He will. Get rid of your leprosy ; He 
will take it. Never mind your feelings. No soul in this 
audience will go down to. the dark caverns if he is willing 
to obey God. And now the question comes to you all to- 
night, Will you obey Him ? You haven't g#t to go a thou- 
sand miles away and dip into a Jordan, but just believe 
where you sit — believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. " Come 
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest." Is there anything to hinder you from obey- 
ing God now? He will give you power to accept Him. 
Do you believe He would offer you salvation without giving 
you the power to obey Him ? Don't go from this hall with 



2 3 2 GREAT JOY. 

any such delusion, my friends. Don't go home from this 
Tabernacle with this leprosy, thinking that you cannot get 
rid of it. If sin is better to you, then, of course, hold on 
to it — if leprosy is worth more to you than to be purified, 
then keep it. Naaman could have gone back with his lep- 
rosy, if he hadn't met that prophet and gone down to Tor- 
dan. If you go out of the Tabernacle to-night without 
accepting him, you go out as a sinner, and if death comes, 
as it may, suddenly upon you, there is no assurance in the 
Bible that you can pass through the pearly gates. There is 
no leprosy there ; you must leave it here. If a leper was 
to get into the kingdom of heaven, all heaven would be 
affected by him. There is a fountain opened in the house 
of David for the lepers. This night you can be saved if 
you will. The door is open — on the hinge ; the battle is 
fought on this fact, if you will — not because you can't. 

Oh, but you say, " I've tried." Naaman might have said, 
" I have tried" too. Probably he had tried all the physi- 
cians in his country, but Naaman couldn't be cured. He 
couldn't cure himself. When Christ said to that man who 
had a withered hand hanging at his side, " Stretch out thy 
hand," he might have said, " I've tried to stretch it out for 
twenty years, and I can't do it." But when the command 
was given him, the power came also. All that was wanted 
was the will of the man. My friends, if you don't accept 
the Gospel and obey it, and you go down to death, there is 
not a ray of hope that you will escape the punishment held 
out in the Bible. There is not a word in the Bible to lead 
you to believe that you will escape condemnation if you go 
down to the grave with that leprosy. Do you think, I ask 
again, that He will ask you to repent and accept eternal 
life without giving you the power ? The moment you obey, 
that moment the blessing comes. Who will accept Him to- 
night ? I wish I could believe for you all, but I cannot. I 
would have you all come into the kingdom of God to-night. 



NAAMAN. 233 

One of two things you have got to do — either accept the 
remedy He offers you, and be saved, or spurn the remedy, 
as Naaman was going to do, and go home with your sins. 
May God open your eyes to see the necessity of being 
saved by this great remedy. Let us pray. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE.' 



One thing I have noticed in studying the Word of God ; 
and that is, when a man is filled with the Spirit, he deals 
largely with the Word- of God ; whereas, the man who is 
filled with his own ideas, refers rarely to the Word of God. 
He gets along without it, and you seldom see it mentioned 
in his discourses. A great many use it only as a text 
book. They get their text from the Bible, and go on 
without any further allusion to it ; they ignore it ; but 
when a man is filled with the Word, as Stephen was, he 
cannot help speaking Scripture. You will find that Moses 
was constantly repeating the commandments ; you will 
find too, that Joshua, when he came across Jordan with 
his people, there they stood, and the law of the Lord God was 
read to them, and you will find all through Scripture the 
man of God dealing much with His Word. Why, you will 
find Christ constantly referring to them, and saying : 
" Thus saith the Scriptures." Now, as old Dr. Bonner, of 
Glasgow, said, " the Lord didn't tell Joshua how to use 
sword, but He told him how he should meditate on the 
Lord day and night, and then he would have good 
success." When we find a man meditating on the words 
of God, my friends, that man is full of boldness and is 
successful. And the reason why we have so little success 
in our teaching, is because we know so little of the Word 
of God. You must know it, and have it in your heart. A 
great many have it in their head and not in their heart. 
If we have the Spirit of God in our heart, then we have 

*34 



"HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE? 235 

something to work upon. He does not use us because 
He is not in us. Know, as we come to this word to-day 
as Mr. Sankey has been singing : 

No word He hath spoken 
Was ever yet broken. 

Let us take this thought in John x., 35, " and the Scrip- 
ture cannot be broken." There is a great deal of infidel- 
ity around, and it has crept into many of the churches, 
too. These doubters take up the Bible and wonder if they 
can believe it all — if it is true from back to back, and a 
good many things in it they believe are not true. I have 
a good deal of admiration for that colored man who was 
approached by some infidel — some skeptical man and who 
told him : " Why, the Bible is not true ; all scientific men 
tell us that now ; it's only a bundle of fables." " Bible 
ain't true ? " replied the colored man ; " Why, I was a 
blasphemer an' a drinker, an' dat book jest' made me 
stop swearin,' drinkin,'- lyin,' an' blasphemin,' an' you say 
t'ain't true." My friends, the black man had the best of 
the argument. Do you think if the Bible was a bad book 
it would make men good ? Do you think if it was a false 
book it would make men good ? And so let us take our 
stand on the colored man's platform and be convinced 
that it is true. When we take it into our hands, let us 
know that it is the word of God and try to understand it. 
Many of the passages appear to us difficult to understand, 
but if we could understand it clearly from back to back at 
first, it would be as a human book, but the very fact that 
we cannot understand it all at once, is the highest proof 
that it is the word of God. 

Now, another thought is, that a great many people read 
it, but they read it as a task. They say, " Well, I've read 
it through, I know all that's in it," and lay it aside. How 



236 GREAT JOY. 

many people prefer the morning paper in order to get 
news. They prefer it, but it is a false idea. This Bible is 
the only newspaper. It tells you all that has taken place 
for the last 6,000 years, and it tells you all the news of the 
future. Why, 1,700 years before Christ, the people were 
told in it of the coming of Christ. They knew He was 
coming. The daily papers could not tell us of this. They 
may be written by learned men, brilliant editorial writers, 
but they couldn't have told this. If you want news, study 
the Bible — the blessed old Bible, and you will find it has 
all the news of the world. 

Now we come to the question, How to study it ? A 
great many read it as I used to read it, just to ease my 
conscience. I had a rule before I was converted to read 
two chapters a day. If I didn't do it before I retired, I 
used to jump out of bed and read them, but if you had 
asked me fifteen minutes after what I had read, I could 
not have told you. Now this is the trouble with many — 
they read with the head and not with the heart. A man 
may read his Bible, but when he has closed it you may ask 
him what chapter he read last, and he cannot tell you. 
He sometimes puts a mark in it. to tell him ; without the 
mark he don't know, his reading has been so careless. It 
is to keep him from reading it again. Just as I used to do 
when hoeing corn. I used to put a stick in the furrow to 
mark the place where I had hoed last. A good many 
people are just like this. They pick up a chapter here, 
and there is no connection in their reading, and con- 
sequently don't know anything about the word of God. If 
we want to understand it we've got to study it — read it on 
our knees, asking the Holy Ghost to give us the under- 
standing to see what the word of God is, and if we go 
about it that way, and turn our face, as Joshua did, in 
prayer, and set ourselves to study these blessed and 
heavenly truths, the Lord will not disappoint us, and we 



"HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE." 237 

will soon know our Bible, and when we know our Bible 
then it is that God can use us. 

Let me say there are three books which every Christian 
ought to have, and, if you haven't them, go and buy them 
before you get your tea. The first is a good Bible — a 
good large-printed Bible. I don't like those little-printed 
ones which you can scarcely see — get one in large print. 
A good many object to a large Bible because they can't 
carry it in their pocket. Well, if you can't carry it in your 
pocket, it is a good way to carry it under your arm. It is 
showing what you are — it is showing your flag. Now a 
great many of you are coming in from the country to these 
meetings, and when you get on the cars, you see people 
who are not ashamed to sit down and play cards. I don't 
see why the children of God should be ashamed of carry- 
ing their Bible under their arms in the cars. " Ah ! " 
some say ; " that is the spirit of a Pharisee." It would be 
the pharisaical spirit if you hadn't dipped down into 
heavenly truths, if you haven't the Spirit of God with you. 
Some say : " I haven't it." Suppose you don't read so 
many of these daily papers, and read a little oftener the 
Bible. Some say, " I haven't time." Take time. I don't 
believe there is a business man in Chicago who couldn't 
find an hour a day to read his Bible if he wanted to. Get 
a good Bible, then a good concordance, and then a scrip- 
tural text-book. Whenever you come to something in the 
Word of God that you don't know, hunt for its meaning in 
those books. Suppose after the meeting I am looking all 
over the platform and Dr. Kittredge says : " What are you 
looking for ? " and I answer, " Oh, nothing, nothing." He 
would go off. If he thought I hadn't dropped something 
he wouldn't stay. But, suppose I had lost a very valuable 
ring which some esteemed friend had given me, and 1 
told him this. He would stay with me, and we would move 
this organ, and those chairs, and look all over, and by 



238 GREAT JOY. 

looking carefully, we would find it. If a man hunts for 
truths in the Word of God, and reads it as if he was look- 
ing for nothing particular, he will get nothing. When the 
men went to California in the gold excitement, they went 
to dig for gold, and they worked day and night with a 
terrible energy just to get gold. Now, my friends, if they 
wanted to get the pure gold they had to dig for it, and 
when I w r as there I was told that the best gold was got by 
digging deep for it. So the best truths are got by digging 
deep for them. 

When I was in Boston I went into Mr. Prang's chromo 
establishment. I wanted to know how the work was done. 
He took me to a stone several feet square, where he took 
the first impression, but when he took the paper off the 
stone I could see no sign of a man's face ; the paper was 
just tinged. I said I couldn't see any sign of a man's face 
there. " Wait a little," he said. He took me to another 
stone, but when the paper was lifted I couldn't see any 
impression yet. He took me up, up to eight, nine, ten 
stones, and then I could see just the faintest outlines of a 
man's face. He went on till he got up to about the twen- 
tieth stone, and I could see the impression of a face, but he 
said it was not very correct yet. Well, he went on until he 
got up, I think, to the twenty-eighth stone, and a perfect 
face appeared, and it looked as if all it had to do was to 
speak and it would be human. If you read a chapter of 
the Bible and don't see anything in it, read it a second 
time, and if you cannot see anything in it read it a third 
time. Dig deep. Read it again and again, and even if 
you have to read it twenty-eight times, do so, and you will 
see the man Christ Jesus, for He is in every page of the 
Word, and if you take Christ out of the Old Testament 
you will take the key out of the Word. 

Many men in the churches now-a-days are saying that 
they believe the teachings in the New Testament are to be 



"HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE." 239 

believed, but those in the Old are not. Those who say 
this don't know anything about the New. There is nothing 
in the Old Testament that God has not put His seal upon. 
" Why/' some people say to me, " Moody, you don't believe 
in the flood. All the scientific men tell us it is absurd." 
Let them tell us. Jesus tells us of it, and I would rather 
take the word of Jesus than that of any other one. I 
haven't got much respect for those men who dig down for 
stones with shovels, in order to take away the word of God. 
Men don't believe in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
but we have it sealed in the New Testament. " As it was 
in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah." They don't believe 
in Lot's wife, but He says, " Remember Lot's wife." So 
there is not a thing that men to-day cavil at but the Son of 
God indorses. They don't believe in the swallowing of 
Jonah. They say it is impossible that a whale could swal- 
low Jonah — it's throat is too small. They forgot that the 
whale was prepared for Jonah ; as the colored woman said, 
"Why, God could prepare a man to swallow a whale, let 
alone prepare a whale to swallow a man." We find 
that He indorses all the points in the Old Testament, from 
Genesis to Revelation. We have only one book — we 
haven't two. The moment a man begins to cut and slash 
away it all goes. Some don't believe in the first five books. 
They would do well to look into the third chapter of John, 
where they will see the Samaritan woman at the well look- 
ing for the coming of Christ from the first five books of 
Moses. I tell you, my friends, if you look for Him you 
will find Him all through the Old Testament. You will 
find Him in Genesis — in every book in the Bible. Just 
turn to Luke xxiv., 27, you will find Him, after He had 
risen again, speaking about the Old Testament prophets : 
" And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he ex- 
pounded unto them in all the Scripture the things concern- 
ing Himself." Concerning Himself. Don't that settle the 



240 GREAT JOY. 

question ? I tell you I am convinced in my mind that the 
Old Testament is as true as the New. " And He began at 
Moses and all the prophets." Mark that, " all the prophets." 
Then in the forty-fourth verse : " And He said unto them, 
these are the words which I spake unto you, while I was 
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were 
written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the 
psalms concerning Me. Then opened He their under- 
standing that they might understand the Scripture." If we 
take Christ out of the Old Testament what are* you going 
to do with the psalms and prophets ? The book is a sealed 
book if we take away the New from it. Christ unlocks the 
Old and Jesus the New. Philip, in teaching the people, 
found Christ in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, " All we, 
like sheep, have gone astray ; we have turned every one to 
his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of 
us all." Why, the early Christians had nothing but the 
Old Testament to preach the gospel from — at Pentecost 
they had nothing else. So if there is any man or woman 
in this assembly who believes in the New Testament, and 
not in the Old, dear friends, you are deluded by Satan, be- 
cause if you read the word of God you will find him spoken 
of throughout both books. I notice if a man goes to cut 
up the Bible and comes to you with one truth and says, 
" I don't believe this and I don't believe that," I notice 
when he begins to doubt portions of the word of God he 
soon doubts it all. 

Now the question is how to study the Bible. Of course, 
I cannot tell you how you are to study it ; but I can tell 
you how I have studied it, and that may help you. I have 
found it a good plan to take up one book at a time. It is 
a good deal better to study one book at a time than to run 
through the Bible. If we study one book and get its key, 
it will, perhaps, open up others. Take up the book of 
Genesis, and you will find eight beginnings ; or, in other 



"HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE:'' 



241 



words, you pick up the key of several books. The gospel 
was written that man might believe on Jesus Christ, and 
every chapter speaks of it. Now, take the book of Genesis ; 
it says it is the book of beginnings. That is the key ; 
then the book of Exodus — it is the book of redemption ; 
that is the key-word of the whole. Take up the book of 
Leviticus, and we find that it is the book of sacrifices. And 
so on through all the different books ; you will find each 
one with a key. Another thing : we must study it unbiased. 
A great many people believe certain things. They believe 
in certain creeds and doctrines, and they run through the 
book to get Scripture in accordance with them. If a man 
is a Calvinistic man, he wants to find something in accord- 
ance with his doctrine. But if we go to seek truth the 
Spirit of God will come. Don't seek it in the blue light of 
Presbyterianism, in the red light of Methodism, or in the 
light of Episcopalianism, but study it in the light of Calvary. 
Another way to study it is not only to take one book at a 
time ; but I have been wonderfully blessed by taking up 
one word at a time. Take up the word and go to your 
concordance and find out all about it. I remember I took 
up the word "love," and turned to the Scriptures and 
studied it, and got so that I felt I loved everybody. I got 
full of it. When I went on the street I felt as if I loved 
everybody I saw. It ran out of my fingers. Suppose you 
take up the subject of love and study it up. You will get 
so full of it that all you have got to do is to open your lips 
and a flood of the love of God flows upon the meeting. If 
you go into a court you will find a lawyer pleading a case. 
He gets everything bearing upon one point, heaped up so 
as to carry his argument with all the force he can, in order 
to convince the jury. Now it seems to me a man should 
do the same in talking to an audience ; just think that he 
has a jury before him, and he wants to convict a sinner. If 
it is love, get all you can upon the subject and talk love, love. 

16 



242 GREAT JOY. 

Take up the word grace. I didn't know what Calvary 
was till I studied grace. I got so full of the wonderful 
grace that I had to speak. I had to run out and tell 
people about it. If you want to find out those heavenly 
truths take up the concordance and heap up the evidence, 
and you cannot help but preach. Take heaven • there are 
people all the time wondering what it is, and where it is. 
Take your concordance and see what the Word of God 
says it is. Let these men who are talking against blood 
look into the Word of God, and they will find if it don't 
teach that it teaches nothing else. When we preach about 
that some people think we are taking our own views. But 
the Word says ; ' the life of all flesh is in the blood, and 
without blood there is no remission." The moment a man 
talks against blood be throws out the Bible. Take up 
Saul, study him. You will find hundreds of men in Chicago 
just like him. Take up Lot, study that character. Let 
me say right here that if we are going to have, and I firmly 
believe in my soul that we are going to have, a revival in 
the North-west — if we are going to have it, you must bring 
the people to the study of the Word of God. I have been 
out here for a good number of years, and I am tired and 
sick of these spasmodic meetings ; tired of the bonfires 
which, after a little, are reduced to a bundle of shavings. 
When I see men speaking to inquirers in the inquiry room 
without holding the W r ord of God up to them, I think their 
work will not be lasting. What we want to do is to get 
people to study the word of God, in order that the work 
may be thorough and lasting. I notice when a man is 
brought coolly, and calmly, and intelligently, that man will 
have a reason for being a Christian. We must do that, 
we must bring a man to the Word of God if we don't want 
this Western country filled with backsliders. Let us pray 
that we will have a Scriptural revival, and if we preach 
only the Word in our churches and in our Sunday schools, 



"HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE? 1 243 

we will have a revival that will last to eternity. Let us 
turn back to one of the Old Testament revivals, when the 
people had been brought up from Babylon. Look at the 
eighth chapter of Nehemiah : " And Ezra, the priest, 
brought the law before the congregation, both of men and 
women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon 
the first day of the seventh month, and he read therein, 
before the street that was before the water gate, from 
morning until midday, before the men and women and 
those that could understand, and the ears of the people 
were attentive unto the book of the law." No preaching 
there ; he merely read the Word of God — that is, God's 
word — not man's. A great many of us prefer man's word 
to that of God. We are running after eloquent preachers 
— after men who can get up eloquent moral essays. They 
leave out the Word of God. We want to get back to the 
Word of God. They had an all-day meeting there, some- 
thing like this, " and Ezra opened the book in the sight of 
all the people, for he was above all the people ; and when 
he opened it all the people stood up." I can see the great 
crowd standing up to listen to the prophet, just like young 
robins taking in what the old robins bring them, "and Ezra 
blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people an- 
swered, Amen, Amen. With lifting up their hands they 
bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their 
faces to the ground." " So they read in the book of law 
of God distinctly and gave the sense, and caused them to 
understand the reading." Now, it strikes me it is about 
the height of preaching to get people that understand the 
reading of the Word. It would be a great deal better if a 
preacher would sometimes stop when he had a remark, 
and say, " Mr. Jones, do you understand that ? " " No, I 
don't," and then the preacher might make it a little plainer, 
so that he could understand it. There would be a great 
difference in the preaching in some of the churches. He 



244 GREAT JOY. 

would talk a little less about metaphysics and science, and 
speak about something else. " Then he said unto them, 
go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet, and send 
portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this 
day is holy unto our Lord, neither be ye sorry, for the joy 
of the Lord is your strength." " For the joy of the Lord 
is your strength." If you will show me a Bible Christian 
living on the word of God, I will show you a joyful man. 
He is mounting up all the time. He has got new truths 
that lift him up over every obstacle, and he mounts over 
difficulties higher and higher, like a man I once heard of 
who had a bag of gas fastened on either side, and if he 
just touched the ground with his foot over a wall or a 
hedge he would go ; and so these truths make us so light 
that we bound over every obstacle. 

And when we have those truths our work will be suc- 
cessful. Just turn over to Jeremiah xx. 9, to this blessed 
old prophet. There was a time when he was not going to 
speak about the word of God any more. Now, I just 
want to show you this, when a man is filled with the Word 
of God you cannot keep him still. If a man has got the 
Word, he must speak or die. " Then I said, I will not 
make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name, 
but His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up 
in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could 
not stay." It set him on fire, and so a man filled with the 
Word of God is filled as with a burning fire, and it is so 
easy for a man to work when he is filled with the Word of 
God. I heard of a man the other week who was going to 
preach against the blood. I was very anxious to see what 
he would say about it, and I got the paper next morning 
and I found there was nothing else there than Scriptural 
quotations. I said that was the very best thing he could 
do. As we see in the twenty-third chapter of Jeremiah : 
" Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, that break- 



"HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE." 245 

eth the rock in pieces ? " Those hard, flinty rocks will be 
broken if we give them the Word of God. Those men in 
the North-west that we cannot reach by our own words, 
give them this and see if they cannot be reached. Not 
only that if we are full of Scripture ourselves, give them 
what God says you will find it easy to preach — you will say 
we haven't to get up so many sermons. It seems to me if 
we had more of the Word of God in our services and give 
up more of our own thoughts, there would be a hundred 
times more converted than there is. A preacher, if he 
wants to give his people the Word, must have fed on the 
Word himself. A man must get water out of a well when 
there is water. He may dip his bucket in if it is empty, 
but he will get nothing. I think the best thing I have 
heard in Chicago I heard the other day, and it has fastened 
itself upon my mind, and I must tell it to your ministers. 
We had for our subject in Farwell Hall the other day, the 
seventh chapter of John, when the Rev. Mr. Gibson said 
if a man was to come among a lot of thirsty men with an 
empty bucket they wouldn't come to him to drink. He 
said he believed that was the trouble with most of the 
ministers, as that had been the trouble with himself. He 
hadn't got a bucket of living water, and the people wouldn't 
come to him to drink. Just look at an audience of thirsty 
men, and you bring in a bucket of clear sparkling water, 
and see how they will go for it. If you go into your Sun- 
day schools and the children look into your buckets and 
see them empty, there is nothing for them there. So, my 
friends, if we attempt to feed others we must first be fed 
ourselves. 

There is another thing winch has wonderfully helped me. 
That is to mark my Bible whenever I hear anything that 
strikes me. If a minister has been preaching to me a good 
sermon, I put his name clown next to the text, and then it 
recalls what has been said, and I can show it to others. 



246 GREAT JOY. 

You know we laymen have the right to take what we hear 
to one another. If ministers saw people doing this they 
would preach a good deal better sermons. Not only that, 
but if we understood our Bibles better, the ministers would 
preach better. I think if people knew more about the 
Word than they do so many of them would not be carried 
away with false doctrine. There is no place I have ever 
been in where people so thoroughly understand their Bibles 
as in Scotland. Why, little boys could quote Scripture and 
take me up on a text. They have the whole nation just 
educated, as it were, with the Word of God. Infidelity 
cannot come there. A man got up in Glasgow at a corner, 
and began to preach universal salvation. "Oh, sir," said 
an old woman, " that will never save the like of me." She 
had heard enough preaching to know that it would never 
save her. If a man comes among them with any false 
doctrine, these Scotchmen instantly draw their Bibles on 
him. I had to keep my eyes open, and be careful what I 
said there. They knew their Bibles a good deal better than 
I did. And so if the preachers would get the people to 
read the Word of God more carefully and note what they 
heard, there would not be so much infidelity among us. 

I want to tell you how I was blessed a few years ago, 
upon hearing a discourse upon the thirtieth chapter of 
Proverbs. The speaker said the children of God were like 
four things. The first thing was, " The ants are a people 
not strong," and he went on to compare tlie children of 
God to the ants. He said the people of God were like 
ants. They pay no attention to the things of the present, 
but go on steadily preparing for the future. The next thing 
he compared them to was the conies. " The conies are but 
a feeble folk." It is a very weak little thing. "Well," said 
I, " I wouldn't like to be as a coney." But he went on to 
say that it built upon a rock. The children of God were 
very weak, but they laid their foundation upon a rock. 



"HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE." 247 

" Well," said I, " I will be like a coney, and build my hopes 
upon a rock." Like the Irishman, who said he trembled 
himself, but the rock upon which his house was built never 
did. The next thing the speaker compared them to was 
a locust. I didn't think much of locusts, and I thought I 
wouldn't care about being like one. But he went on to 
read, they have " no king, yet they go forth all of them by 
bands." There were the Congregationalist, the Presbyte- 
rian, the Methodist bands going forth without a king ■ but 
by and by our King will come back again, and these bands 
will fly to Him. " Well, I will be like a locust ; my King's 
away," I thought. The next comparison was a spider. I 
didn't like this at all ; but he said if we went into a gilded 
palace filled with luxury, we might see a spider holding on 
to something, oblivious to all the luxury below. It was 
laying hold of the things above. " Well," said I, " I would 
like to be a spider." I heard this a good many years ago, 
and I just put the speaker's name to it, and it makes the 
sermon. But take your Bibles and mark them. Don't 
think of wearing it out. It is a rare thing to find a man 
wearing his Bible out now-a-days — and Bibles are cheap, . 
too. You are living in a land where there are plenty. 
Study them and mark them, and don't be afraid of wearing 
them. Now don't you see how much better it would be to 
study it ? And if you are talking to a man instead of talk- 
ing about your neighbors, just talk about the Bible, and 
when Christian men come together just compare notes, and 
ask one another : "What have you found new in the Word 
of God since I saw you last ? Some men come to me and 
ask me if I have picked up anything new, and I give them 
what I have, and they give me what they have. An English- 
man asked me some time ago, " Do you know much about 
Job ? " " Well, I know a little," I replied. " If you've got 
the key of Job you've got the key to the whole Bible." 
" What ! " I replied ; " I thought it was a poetical book." 



248 GREAT JOY. 

" Well," said he, "I will just divide Job into seven heads. 
The first is the perfect man — untried — and that is Adam 
and Eve before they fell. The second head is tried by 
adversity — Adam, after the fall. The third is the wisdom 
of the world — the three friends who came to try to help 
Job out of his difficulties. They had no power to help him 
at all." He could stand his scolding wife, but he couldn't 
stand them. The fourth head takes the form of the Medi- 
ator, and in the fifth head God speaks at last. He heard 
Him before by the ear, but he hears Him now by the soul, 
and he fell down flat upon his face. A gpod many men in 
Chicago are like Job. They think they are mighty good 
men, but directly they hear the voice of God they know 
they are sinners ; they are in the dust. There isn't much 
talk about their goodness then. Here he was with his face 
down. Job learned his lesson. That was the sixth head, 
and in these heads were the burdens of Adam's sin. The 
seventh head was when God showed him His face. Well, 
I learned the key to the Bible. I cannot tell how 
this helped me. I told it to another man, and he 
asked me if I ever thought of how he got his property back 
and his sheep back. He gave Job double what he had, 
and gave him ten children besides, so that he should have 
ten in heaven besides his ten on earth. 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, II. 



A great many are asking the questions, Will this work 
hold out ? Are these young converts going to stand ? Now 
I am no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but one thing I 
can predict; that every one of these new converts that 
goes to studying his Bible, and loves this book above every 
other book, is sure to hold out. The world will have no 
charm for him, he will get the world under his feet, because 
in this book he will find something better than the world can 
give him. Now what I want to say to these young converts, 
and to old converts, is to love the Word of God. Set more 
and more store by it. Then the troubles in your Christian 
life will pass away like a morning cloud. You will feed 
and live on the Word of God, and it will become the joy of 
your soul. 

Now, to help some of you to a right course in studying 
God's word, I want to point out a number of texts that you 
might begin with, and then, in the same way, you can 
collect others. I want to call your attention first to a 
part of the fourth chapter of Matthew. A little boy in the 
s'eat there, while giving his experience the other day, felt 
so sure about his strength that he defied Satan. I trembled. 
Those of us who are older, and know more about the 
devil's power, know that we can only meet him with the 
Word of God. We can't withstand him by our feelings or 
by our being converted ; he only laughs at such weapons. 
Read in this fourth chapter, from the third verse on, and 
see how Christ overcame Satan. Not by His feelings, not 
because He had been baptized of John in Jordan, but by 

249 



250 GREAT JOY. 

the word of the living God. Three times Satan advanced 
to the charge, but every time he was thrust through by the 
sword of the Spirit. And that must be your sword. Don't 
say, like the little boy in Scotland, " Old Nick, just you 
get behind me," but say, " O Lord, just put him behind 
me." You can't do anything against Satan of yourself ; 
you can only overcome him through Christ and by the 
word of the living God. 

Then take Romans, x., 15. It shows there was a work 
done for you on Calvary, but that there is another work 
quite distinct from that. " How shall they preach except 
they be sent ? " " Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing 
by the word of God." How many mourning Christians 
there are who know little about God, and the reason is just 
that they do not study the word of God. You are little 
acquainted with this precious book. I don't see how 
Christians can habitually read the newspapers on Sunday. 
I wouldn't advise you even to read your religious weeklies 
on that day. I find too many are making these take the 
place of the Bible. Let us have one day exclusively to 
study and read the Word of God. If we can't take time 
during the week, we will have Sunday uninterrupted. What 
can botanists tell you of the lily of the valley? you must 
study this book for that. What can geologists tell you of 
the Rock of Ages, or mere astronomers about the Bright 
Morning Star ? In these pages we find all knowledge unto 
salvation ; there we read of the ruin of man by nature, re- 
demption by the blood, and regeneration by the Holy 
Ghost. These three things run up all through and through 
them. 

But let us stick to the thought, how to study this Bible. 
A favorite way with me is just to take up one word or ex- 
pression, and run through the different places where they 
are. Take the " I ams " of John ; "I am the bread of 
life ; " "I am the water of life ; " "I am the way, the 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, II 251 

truth, and the life ;" "I am the resurrection ;" "I am all, 
and in all." God gives to his children a blank, and on it 
they can write whatever they most want, and He will fill 
the bill. 

And then the promises. A Scotchman found out 31,000 
distinct promises in the Word of God. There is not a 
despondent soul in this Tabernacle, this morning, but God 
has a" promise just to suit him. They abound even in the 
books of Job and Jonah. 

And now let us follow on the thought " What is God able 
to do." Just get all the blessed texts on that subject to 
heart, and you can't help speaking for God. Then you can 
indeed say " God is my Father, Jesus is my Saviour, and 
heaven is my home." There is a blessed verse in the 
gospel of John. There is no more fruitful subject in the 
Bible than is opened up there. The conversions there and 
through the Bible, notice, are different from each other, 
though all redounding to the glory of God. Think of Nico- 
demus, the woman at the well, and Matthew the publican. 
And then the conversions in the Acts, and those of the 
Philippian jailer and Cornelius. We make a great deal 
more ado about this simple act than the Bible teaches. 
Conversion is just to believe on Christ and follow Him, and 
may be but be the work of a moment. 

Mr. Moody went on to say : Take up these texts of Peter 
having the word precious; "precious blood," "precious 
Christ," "precious faith," "precious trial of faith," "pre- 
cious promises of God." Just take one word of the apostle 
and trace it out. 

Many persons do not believe in assurance as to salvation. 
Turn to the 'third chapter of the first epistle of John, 
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God." The fifth verse of 
that chapter says, " And ye knew he was manifested to take 
away our sins," and then we come to " I know that my 
Redeemer liveth." All the Bible puts it in that way. 



252 GREAT JOY. 

When it speaks of hope, it means a certain hope, not a 
doubtful hope. The " hope of a glorious resurrection " 
was a sure hope. Then the nineteenth verse, " Hereby we 
know that we are of the truth ; " and then, " We know that 
we have passed from death unto life," and " Ye know that 
no murderer hath eternal life," and also, " Hereby we 
know that He abideth in us, by the spirit which He hath 
given us." There is no reason, nay, there is no excuse, for 
Christians doubting that they are saved ; it is presumptuous 
not to take God at His word. Again, the second verse of 
the third chapter of the epistle of John says : " Beloved, 
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be ; but we know that when He shall appear 
we shall be like Him." 

So I find great comfort and advantage in just taking up 
the Word of God in this way, and studying it with a view 
to some single truth. Take up in this way a single name 
or life or character. Thus Lazarus, in his different stages, 
is the type of the dead soul — the soul dead in trespasses 
and sins ; then he is the saved soul ; then the feasting 
rejoicing soul ; then he testifies to the goodness of God. 
Galatians shows how we are first called, then justified, 
then sanctified ; all through there is a beautiful connection, 
and you have only to stand right with one of these 
thoughts, and follow the trail out. 

And then take up the Christian's growth in grace, Psalm 
23, verse 2, " Lie down in green pastures ; " " Sitting at 
the feet of Jesus ; " Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 13 and 
14, "He is able to make us stand;" Psalms, "Walk 
through the valley of the shadow of death ; " Hebrews, 
chapter 12, verse 1, "Run with patience the race that is 
set before us ; " Psalms 18, verse 21, and in Isaiah, chapter 
40, verse 31, "They shall mount up with wings a£ eagles." 
The Christian, these verses show, goes up higher and 



HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, II 253 

higher, like a balloon, till the world is lost to sight ; till he 
becomes like Christ, and possessed of eyes that can gaze 
unblinded on the glory of the City of God. But I have 
spoken too long at this time, and will finish my subject 
hereafter. 



TRUST. 



Mr. Moody said in opening his regular address he would 
make the sermon an inquiry room talk. He was not going 
to have any one in the congregation go away and say they 
hadn't an offer of salvation. He was going to turn the 
Tabernacle into an inquiry room. And first he would call 
attention to a verse in the Psalms. Some who had count- 
ed the verses in the Bible found that the eighth and ninth 
verses of the one hundred and eighteenth Psalm were the 
middle verses of the Bible : " It is better to trust in the 
Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust 
in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." And also 
he read the third and fourth verses of the twenty-sixth 
chapter of Isaiah : " Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 
whose mind is stayed on thee ; because he trusteth in thee. 
Trust ye in the Lord forever ; for in the Lord Jehovah is 
everlasting strength." A boy whose mother promises him 
anything knows how to trust her. If she promises him a 
pair of skates at Christmas, he don't begin to analyze what 
trust is ; he don't begin to ask what his feeling is. He 
simply says, " Mother said so, and that's enough." There 
was nothing miraculous about it ; it was simply trust. This 
was the idea of trusting in God. They must trust God, 
even if they don't know what the result will be. In the 
Sixty-second Psalm, eighth verse it said : " Trust in Him at 
all times, ye people ; pour out your heart before him ; God 
is a refuge for us." It was the same in the midnight dark- 
ness as in the daylight. It was the child in the light 
whose father was in the dark. The child leaped into its 

2S4 



TRUST. 255 

father's arms though it didn't see him. It was the simple 
trust that the Father was there. Trust God at all times. 
Trust Him as one would trust a banker whom he had tried, 
a doctor whom he had confidence in ; or a lawyer who had 
been tried and had never lost a case. They had an advo- 
cate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the Righteous. 
How to trust Him was shown in Proverbs to be with " all 
the heart; " not a little, but with the whole heart. Don't 
trust the minister with the soul's salvation, but God. God 
wants the whole heart ; God hates half-heartedness ; God 
detests half-heartedness. An incident of Alexander illus- 
trated this, where the emperor was warned to beware of his 
medicine. The emperor took the note of warning in one 
hand and the medicine in the other, and, because he trust- 
ed in his physician, took his draught. That was perfect trust. 
Paul said : " I am persuaded that He is able to keep that 
which I have committed unto Him." The next step was, 
Who will trust Him ? This is answered in the ninth Psalm 
at the tenth verse : " They that know Thy name will put 
their trust in Thee." He must be known to be trusted; 
He must be believed to be trusted. No infidel could trust 
God -because he didn't know Him. No one could go down 
to hell trusting in God. Then came the trust : " Thou 
wilt keep them in perfect peace that trust Thee." In the 
sixteenth chapter of Proverbs, at the twentieth verse, was 
described the joy of the one who trusted God : " WhoSo 
trusteth' in the Lord, happy is he." In the thirty-second 
Psalm, at the tenth verse again it was said : " Many 
sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth 
in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." The 
joy is thus described in the fifth Psalm, at the eleventh 
verse: "But let all those that put their trust in Thee 
rejoice ; let them even shout for joy, because Thou de- 
fendest them ; let them also that love Thy name be joyful 
in Thee." The inquirer asked about feeling — how should 



256 GREAT JOY. 

he feel ? He would say, " Let your feelings take care of 
themselves, you have only to come to God." They couldn't 
be saved by their feelings, nor by their good morals, by 
trying to break off their sins here and there ; it was like 
lopping off the twigs of a tree, while Christ laid the axe 
to the root. In the twenty-ninth chapter of Proverbs it 
was said, " Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be 
safe," or in the margin " set on high." The next question 
was : Why didn't they get this trust ? Was it pride, the 
fear of neighbors ? Why didn't they get this trust ? Again 
in the thirty-seventh Psalm reference was had to this: 
" Fret not thyself because of evil doers ; commit thy way 
unto Him, and He shall bring it to pass." He was the 
widows' God, the orphans' God. Let none fret for the 
coming winter ; the Lord will provide. He will be a pres- 
ent help. Mr. Moody told a number of illustrative inci 
dents, and was especially practical in urging all who feared 
for the winter to trust in God, to rest in Him, and He would 
never leave, never forsake them. 



SUDDEN CONVERSION. 



I propose to-night to take a subject rather than a text, 
and that subject is sudden conversion— instant salvation. 
One reason why I am led to take up this subject is because 
I have received a large number of letters asking me how it 
is that I can teach such a pernicious doctrine that a man 
can be saved all at once — that salvation is instantaneous. 
One of the writers goes on to state that it is clearly taught 
in the word of God that conversion is a gradual thing — 
that it is a life work — and that it is a dangerous thing to 
teach that a man can come into this Tabernacle a sinner 
and go out a saved man. Now, let us see what is taught 
in the word of God, and if it don't teach instantaneous 
salvation let us give up the idea. I hold to it as I do to 
my life, and I would as quickly give up my life as give up 
this doctrine, unless it can be proved that it is not accord- 
ing to the word of God. Now, I will admit that light is 
one thing and birth is another. A soul must be born 
before it can see light. A child must be born before it can 
be taught ; it must be born before it can walk ; it must be 
born before it can be educated. I think the grandest 
mistake among ministers is that they are talking to dead 
men ; that they are talking to men in the flesh instead of 
men born of God. Now, let us get them into Christ, and 
then educate them and build them up to the highest faith. 
Let us not try to teach men who are not born of God. The 
Scripture is very clear on this point. It gives no uncertain 
sound. If a man is dead in sin you may as well talk to a 

l 7 2 S7 



258 GREAT JOY. 

corpse as talk to him about spiritual things. To tell an 
unrenewed man — an unregenerated man to worship, serve, 
and love God, is absurd ; you may as well tell a man to leap 
over Lake Michigan as to tell a man not born of God to 
serve Him. 

Now the first illustration I want to call your attention to 
is when the voice came down from heaven to Noah, " Come 
thou and all thy home into the ark, for thee have I seen 
righteous before me in this generation." Now, there was 
a minute when Noah was outside the ark, and another when 
he was inside, and by being inside he was saved. As long 
as he was outside of the ark he was exposed to the wrath 
of God just like the rest of those antediluvians. If he 
stayed out, and remained with those antediluvians, he 
would have been swept away, as they were. It was not his 
righteousness, it was not his faith nor his works that saved 
him ; it was the ark. And my friends, we have not like 
Noah to be 120 years making an ark for our safety. God 
has provided an ark for us, and the question is : Are you 
inside or outside this ark ? If you are inside you are safe ; 
if you are outside you are not safe. If you are outside 
you are exposed to the wrath of God continually, and you 
cannot tell the clay nor the hour nor the minute when you 
may be swept into eternity. When I was in Manchester in 
one of the inquiry meetings I went up to the gallery to 
speak to some people there. While we were standing in a 
little group, a man came up and stood near us. He was a 
respectable looking man, and I thought by his general 
appearance he was skeptical. I didn't think he had come 
up as an inquirer, but as I stood I noticed tears trickling 
down his face, and I went to him and asked him if he 
wanted to seek Christ, and he answered "Yes." I went 
on talking to him, but he could not see what I meant. I 
thought I would use an illustration, and after I had put it 
to him I asked him if he saw it. He said " No." I gave 



SUDDEN CONVERSION. 259 

him another illustration, and asked him, " Do you see it 
now ? " But he again replied " No." I used two or three 
more illustrations, but he could not see them. He told 
me, " Mr. Moody, the fact is I do not feel the evidence of 
God." " But," I said, " I tell you you are not to be saved 
by your feelings, and I gave him this illustration ; " What 
was it that saved Noah? Was it his ark, or was it his 
feelings, or his life, or his prayers ? " "I see it now ; it's 
all right," and he went away. This was Thursday night, 
and he had to leave on a night train. On the Sunday 
afternoon, while preaching in the Free Trade Hall, a man 
came and tapped me on the shoulder, and asked me if I 
knew him. I said " No," and he said, " Do you remember 
when you spoke to me on Thursday and used the illustration 
of Noah's Ark to save me ? " " Yes," I answered. " Well, I 
got in then, and have been there ever since. The ark 
keeps me. Thank God for that illustration of the ark." 
May God help you to see this illustration to-night, and 
may you not be trying to save yourselves by your feelings, 
your tears, by your wounds. God has provided an ark, 
and every man who is in it is saved, and every one who is 
out of it is lost. 

Let us take another Bible illustration. Look at those 
two angels coming down to Sodom. They knew that God 
was going to destroy it utterly, and they led Lot out. What 
was it that saved his life ? Was it his feelings, his tears ? It 
was by obeying the call : " Escape for your life." And now 
God says, escape for your life— escape to Mount Calvary. 
Don't delay, because He is going to destroy this world as 
He did Sodom. While Lot was in Sodom he was liable to 
the wrath of God, but the moment he got outside of Sodom 
he was safe. As long as a man remains out of Christ he 
is liable to the wrath of God and the fire of heaven. Look 
again, look at those Children of Israel when they were 
commanded to ,put the blood on the door-posts and they 



2 6o GREAT JOY. 

would be saved from the hand of death. What was it that 
saved them ? Was it the blood or was it their feelings ? The 
moment the blood was there they were saved, and if a man 
is behind the blood he is as safe as if he were walking the 
crystal pavement of^ heaven. When the blood was there 
the angel of death passed over. One moment the blood 
was off the posts and the next moment it was on. It was 
instantaneous salvation. You know Joshua received a com- 
mand from God that he should erect six cities, three on 
each side of the Jordan, which were to be cities of refuge. 
There were to be great turnpikes and highways to these 
cities which were to be kept in proper repair, and the gates 
of the cities were to be kept open day and night, and sign- 
posts were to be placed along the road to provide for the 
man's guidance to these cities of refuge. The moment a 
man got inside one of those cities he was safe. His safety 
was instantaneous — the moment he stepped over the boun- 
dary line. Just look at two men out in the woods chop- 
ping wood. As one of the men brings his ax down on the 
tree it splits and flies from his hand and kills his companion. 
He knows what the consequences will be when the killing 
is discovered. He knows that it will be sure death the 
moment the news reaches the nearest relative of the de- 
ceased. The man who will not avenge the death of his 
relative is not considered a true man. If a relative would 
not avenge the death of a kinsman it was considered very 
dishonorable among the Israelites. The man knows that 
there is a city of refuge ten miles away, and if he can but 
reach it he is safe. Thank God, our city of refuge is not 
ten miles away. That man just leaps upon the, highway. 
He does not take time to argue or think ; he just leaps 
upon the highway and makes for the city of refuge. The 
news soon spreads that a man has been killed, and the 
murderer is making for the city of refuge. Whenever the 
brother learns that his kinsman has been killed, he starts 



SUDDEN CONVERSION. 261 

after that poor fugitive. On they go — the avenger and the 
fugitive — flying to his haven of hope. It is a life and death 
struggle. Look at him ! See him, as he leaps ditches and 
speeds along the road. Some people see him flying past. 
"Make haste," they cry, " because the avenger is upon you. 
Fly for your life." Ah, sinner, you do not know how far 
the avenger is behind you. To-night he may be upon you. 
We do not know the day, the hour, when he will overtake 
us. The avenger he knows now is after him. On he goes, 
bounding over every obstacle, his speed at its utmost, and 
his face resolutely set toward the gate wherein his safety 
lies. He is terribly in earnest. See him leap over the 
highway ; see his bruises, and on he goes panting and 
nearly exhausted. He sees the gates of the city. The 
officers see him from the walls, and they shout, " Hasten 
on, for the avenger is drawing near ! he is behind thee." 
One moment he is outside the walls — the next moment he 
is inside. He is a saved man. One moment out, the next 
moment in. What are these illustrations in the Bible for 
unless to show us how we are to be saved. Don't you see 
from this that conversion is instantaneous. One minute 
you may be outside, and the next mimate you are inside. 

I will give you another illustration, which I think you 
will be able to get hold of. You will remember when we 
had slavery we used to have men come up from Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and other slave States in order to escape from 
slavery. I hope if there are any Southern people here 
they will not think in this allusion I am trying to wound 
their feelings. We all remember when these colored men 
came here how they used to be afraid lest some one should 
come and take them back. Why, I remember in the store 
we had a poor fugitive, and he used to be quaking all the 
time. Sometimes a customer would come in, and he would 
be uneasy all the time. He was afraid it was some one to 
take him back to slavery. But somebody tells him if he 



262 GREAT JOY. 

was in Canada he would be perfectly safe, and he says : 
" If I could only get into Canada ; if I could only get under 
the Union Jack I would be free." There are no "slaves 
under the Union Jack he has been told — that is the flag of 
freedom, the moment he gets under it he is a free man. 
So he starts. We'll say there are no railways, and the 
poor fellow has got ten miles ahead when his master 
comes up, and he hears that his slave has fled for Canada 
and sets off in pursuit. Some one tells the poor fugitive 
that his master is after him. What does the poor fugitive 
do ? What does he do ? He redoubles his exertions and 
presses on, on, on, on. He is a slave born, and he knows 
a slave belongs to his master. Faster he goes. He knows 
his master is after him and he will be taken if he comes up 
with him before he reaches the lines. He says, " If I can.. 
only hold out and get under the English flag, the English 
Government will protect me. The whole English army 
will come to protect me if need be. On he presses. He 
is now nearing the boundary line. One minute he is a slave 
and in an instant he is a free man. My friends, don't 
mistake. These men can be saved to-night if they cross 
the line. Your old master, Satan, may be pressing down 
upon you, but there is a land of liberty up there, and the 
banner of heaven is the flag of love, and under that flag 
you are protected from all danger, and if an enemy comes 
near you God says : " If you touch him you touch the apple 
of my eye." And He will hold you in His right hand and 
keep you for the day of redemption. Will you go out of 
this hall to-night and doubt sudden conversion? Will you 
say a man cannot be saved all at once ? Look what He 
said to Moses. He told Him to put a brazen serpent on 
a pole, and whenever a man looked at that serpent he 
would live. If some of the preachers we have now in 
Chicago Had lived then they would have said a man may 
look 6,000 years at that and he wouldn't be saved. A man 



SUDDEN CONVERSION. 263 

would die while they were discussing it. A few days ago 
I heard of a minister who said, I was preaching a most 
pernicious doctrine when I preached sudden conversion. 
But point out to me one single conversion in this blessed 
Bible that was not a sudden conversion. Why, every con- 
version recorded in the Bible was instantaneous, and if 
preachers tell men conversion is a life work they are keep- 
ing men out of the kingdom of God. We can have instant 
conversion. " Now is the day of salvation." I tell you, 
sinners, escape for your lives, fly to the haven of safety- — 
look, look, look, at the crucified One, and you will be saved 
to-night. Look and live. You will become a child of God 
for time and eternity. The blessing will come upon you — 
whenever we look we can be saved. Just go back to that 
camp of Israel. Everyone who looked at that brazen 
serpent was well. The remedy was instantaneous. 

When I was in England they were at me all the time 
about this sudden conversion. They said it was a life 
work from the cradle down to the grave. [ did all I could 
to show them it. One day I was walking down the streets 
of York, when I saw a soldier coming down. You can tell 
a soldier in England in an instant by his coat. I stepped 
up to him and said : " My friend, I am a stranger in this 
country, and you will pardon me if I ask you a question. 
How long did it take you to become a soldier ? " Well, he 
laughed in my face. I suppose he thought I was very 
green, to ask him such a question. But he told me that 
he made up his mind to enlist in Queen Victoria's army, 
and he went to a recruiting sergeant, and he put an English 
shilling into the palm of his hand, and from that moment 
he was a soldier. When he had taken that shilling, from 
that moment he becomes one of the Queen's army, and if 
he goes back he becomes a deserter, and if caught is put 
into prison. He first made up his mind to enlist, and that 
is the way to become a Christian. Make up your mind. 



264 GREAT JOY. 

The next thing he did was to take the shilling, and from 
that moment he became a soldier. When we make up our 
mind to be a Christian the next thing we have to do is to 
accept His terms — take salvation as a gift. You wonder 
how a man can become a Christian as that man became a 
soldier. He was a citizen one moment ; the next moment 
he was a soldier. He was no longer his own master when 
he had accepted that shilling. He belonged to the English 
army. So the moment you enlist in Christ's army you be- 
long to Him. If you want to become a Christian take 
Christ's shilling as a gift. The minute you take that gift, 
that minute you are a child of God. See what He says : 
" To as many as receive Him gave He power to become 
the sons and daughters of men. When you accept Him 
He becomes your way, your truth, your light, your all in 
all. You can have His gift if you will receive Him to- 
night. While I was in New York an Irishman stood up in 
a young converts' meeting and told how he had been saved. 
He said in his broken Irish brogue that I used an illustra- 
tion and that that illustration saved him. And I declare that 
is the only man I ever knew who was converted without 
being spoken to. He said I used an illustration of a 
wrecked vessel, and said that all would perish unless some 
assistance came. Presently a lifeboat came alongside and 
the captain shouted, " Leap into the life-boat — leap for 
your lives, or you will perish," and when I came to the 
point I said, "Leap into the lifeboat; Christ is your life- 
boat," and he just leaped into the lifeboat of salvation and 
was saved. If a man goes out of the Tabernacle to-night 
without salvation it won't be my fault ; it will be your own. 
It will not be because the ark is not open, but because you 
will not accept the invitation to enter ; it will not be be- 
cause the blessing is not there, but because you will not 
take it, for it's there. May God open your eyes to accept 
Him before you leave this building — to accept salvation 
as a gift. Let us unite in prayer. 



BEHOLD ! 



I want to call your attention to-night to this little word 
"Behold." "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity." I want 
to speak to you for a few minutes about this one word, and 
you cannot forget a simple text with only one word in it. 
The first thing a man has to learn in coming for salvation 
is that he has fallen in the sight of God ; to know that 
none are pure in His sight. You have to learn that you 
are born bad, before you can even approach Him. " Be- 
hold, I was shapen in iniquity." Now, a man needn't live 
a great number of years before he finds that out. When- 
ever he comes to God, he will discover this. Every one 
who has ever taken a prominent place in the Bible has 
found this out. They might have thought themselves 
good enough before they came to God, but the moment 
they came to Him, they discovered that they were shapen 
in iniquity. I suppose Isaiah thought he was as good as 
most men in his day, and perhaps he was a good deal bet- 
ter than most- men, but when he saw the Lord he cried : 
" Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of un- 
clean lips." When he saw the Lord, he saw his own de- 
formity, and he fell in the dust before the Lord. And 
that is the proper place for a sinner. As I have said be- 
fore, until men realize their uncleanness they talk of their 
own righteousness, but the moment they catch a sight of 
Him, their mouth is stopped. If we hear a man talking 
about himself, we may be sure that he has not seen God. 

Look at that man, Daniel. Not a thing can be found 

265 



266 GREAT JOY. 

against him, but see when he came within sight of God, 
he found that his comeliness turned to corruption. And 
lftok at Job. One would have thought he was all right. 
He was good to the poor, liberal to all charities — not a 
better man within a thousand miles. If they wanted to 
get $ 1,000 to endow a university, $1,000 to build a syn- 
agogue, if they wanted to have $1,000 for any charitable 
object, why he was the man. Why, you would have liked 
to get him into your Presbyterian, or Methodist, or Bap- 
tist Churches; if you wanted a chairman of a benevolent 
society, you couldn't have found a better man. Yet look 
at him when God came near him. It is altogether dif- 
ferent when He comes within our sight. It is one thing 
to hear Him and another thing to see Him. We have 
heard Him with his ears, but now he saw Him with his 
eyes, and then he was silent. You couldn't get another 
word from him. Before he saw Him he could argue and 
talk about Him to his friends — could argue as well as they 
could ; but the moment Job saw Him he was silent. When 
he said, " Gird up thy loins like a man." From that time 
he put no more questions to Him. He had got a lesson. 
No man can come into His kingdom till he knows he is 
vile, till he sees Him. He must come down to that. That 
is God's alphabet. Many men want to begin at z, and 
don't want to begin at a, b. A man must commence at 
the beginning and learn there is not one thing good in the 
flesh. It is corrupt. As Paul said, " There is nothing 
good in it." We have Adam's flesh, and it is bad. God 
has said so. He cannot find anything good in it, and if 
He cannot, let us give up trying to find good spots in it. 
It is guilty, it is corrupt, it is false, it is at enmity with 
God. There is evil in it all through. 

My friends, if you have learned the lesson, I have good 
tidings for you. You best know if you have. There is 
good tidings for you. The voice comes down from 



BEHOLD! 267 

heaven : " Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, 
a Saviour." That is the best news that ever come down 
from heaven — -the best news that ever fell on the ears of 
man. Of course, if a man does not believe, he is ruined, 
he cannot appreciate the news ; but to the man who knows 
he is ruined, this is the best tidings that can come to him. 
The gospel tells you plainly that you are lost, but let me 
tell every one in this hall to-night that I bring you good 
news. It is the gospel of peace, it is a gospel of glad 
tidings, it is a gospel of joy, it is a gospel of reconciliation. 
And all a man has got to do is to believe this gospel and 
be saved. A great many people have got a false idea 
from the preaching of the gospel. Some think when we 
preach the gospel it means condemnation. They shout 
as did those men in the tombs, when He came to them : 
" Have ye Come to torment us before our time ? " So, men, 
don't believe we bring goodness. 

When I was in Glasgow I heard a story of old Dr. 
Arnott. He heard of a poor woman in great distress. 
She was poor, and her landlord was after her for the rent. 
He put some money in his pocket and started for her 
house. When he reached it he knocked at the door, but 
got no answer. He knocked again, but none came. He 
waited and waited and knocked, but could not get anyone 
to come, and left. A day or two afterward he met the 
woman on the street, and said : " I heard you were in dis- 
tress, and could not pay your rent. I came to the door 
the other day, but I found no one in your house." The 
woman threw up both her hands. " Why, I thought it 
was the landlord ; I had the door locked and bolted." 
She thought it was the landlord after her rent. And peo- 
ple think when Jesus Christ comes to them, He comes to 
demand something. " Why," said a young man, " I would 
like to become a Christian, but I would have to give up so 
much." Why, that is a ridiculous idea. When you receive 



268 GREAT JOY. 

Christ, you receive everything. You are in the position of 
a beggar. You give up your rags and put on a brand new 
suit. You give up nothing and receive everything. The 
idea of a man being so deceived ! Do you think the Lord 
Jesus Christ comes to you to torment you ? Ask those men 
who have received Him, if this be so. Ask those who 
have been deceived for forty or fifty years by Satan, and 
who have accepted Him. They will tell you they have 
enjoyed more peace and happiness in the last few 
days than they have in all those years put together. 
I heard a Christian saying that he had enjoyed 
more happiness the first day he accepted Christ than he 
did in all the previous years of his life. Now, my friends, 
God don't want to take anything from you. He wants to 
give you everything that is good for your happiness. Now, 
I have two little children, and I wouldn't like to give them 
anything but what would be good for them. So the God 
of heaven wants to keep nothing from us but that which 
will ruin us. The Son of God has come into the world to 
bless us. Look at that Sermon on the Mount. It is filled 
with the word blessed, blessed, blessed. I think it occurs 
nine times. His heart was full of blessings for the people. 
He had to get it out before he gave His sermon. Don't 
believe He came to make you miserable. That is one of 
the devil's lies. Don't believe He has come to torment 
you. I heard some time ago of a little book upon a pas- 
sage of Scripture — I didn't know there was such a passage 
— which occurred in the history of David and Mephibos- 
heth. You know, one day Jonathan and David were 
together, and Jonathan said : " David, I want you to make 
a vow." I suppose it had been revealed to Jonathan that 
he was to take his place. Instead of his heart being filled 
with jealousy he loved him as a brother. " Now, I want 
you to make a vow that when you get my father's throne, 
if any of my father's house are alive, that you will show 



BEHOLD! 269 

them kindness." "Why, yes, Jonathan," replies David, 
" I will ; I would do it for your sake alone." Well, time 
went on. You know how Saul persecuted David, and 
drove him into the cave of Adallam ; and if he could have 
caught him you know how he would have slain him. 
News came to him that the Israelites were routed and that 
Saul and Jonathan were slain, and David came up to 
Hebron and reigned for seven and a-half years, and came 
after this up to Jerusalem. I can see him in his palace in 
the height of his power, and the recollection of the old 
vow he made to Jonathan suddenly comes upon him. His 
conscience tells him he has made a vow to his old friend 
Jonathan which he has not kept. I can see him order in 
one of his servants. " Do you know if there are any of 
Saul's house alive ? " " Well, I don't know, but there is 
an old servant of Saul's, Ziba." David orders him in, and 
asks : " Are any of Saul's house alive, because if there is 
I want to show kindness to them." I can imagine the 
expression of his face. The idea of David showing kind- 
ness to any of Saul's house — to Saul, who wanted to slay 
him, and who persecuted him. " Well, yes," the servant 
answers, "there is a son of Jonathan living." "What! " 
he cries, " a son of my old friend Jonathan ; where is he ? " 
" He was at Lo-debar, the last I heard of him." Now, 
you may have been a great traveller, and yet you have 
never heard of Lo-debar. You may have been all around 
the world and still you have not heard of Lo-debar. You 
may work in the post-office and you have never heard of 
Lo-debar — never saw a letter directed to that place. Still 
that is the place where everyone of Adam's sons have been. 
Evsry one has been in Lo-debar. Every backslider is 
there. When David heard where he was, he sent down to 
bring up Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth. See that chariot 
sweeping through the town. " Why, the king's chariot is 
here," the people say. " What does it mean?" We are 



270 GREAT JOY. 

told that this poor prince was lame, and I can see the 
poor lame prince as he comes out to meet the servant. 
" What is it ? " he inquires. " King David has sent for 
you," the servant replies. I can see the prince trembling 
from head to foot when he hears this. He thinks King 
David wants to slay him ; he thinks he is just going to cut 
off his head. That's the way with sinners. They think 
that God stands behind them with a double-whetted sword 
ready to annihilate them. The servant says : " I want you 
to come down and see the king." " But," replies the 
prince, " I tell you that means death to me." Just as a 
good many sinners in Chicago think. " But," continues 
the servant, " he has sent me, and wants you to come ; " 
and he gets him into the carriage and on to the highway, 
through the streets and unto the palace of the king. 
Whenever he enters he is brought into the presence of the 
king. The king looks upon him and sees upon his brow 
the image of Jonathan, and says to Mephibosheth, " I will 
show thee kindness for thy father's sake, and I will restore 
unto you all Saul's possessions, and you shall sit at the 
King's table." He restores to the lame prince the inheri- 
tance he lost, and then gives him a place at the king's 
table. That is the gospel. God wants you to come up 
from Lo-debar to Jerusalem and take your inheritarce. 
The moment you come from your Lo-debar to the city of 
peace that moment you will learn the glad tidings. 

Now, there is another " behold." We find it here in the 
first chapter of John, and I want to call your attention to 
it " Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin 
of the world." Now, every sin which you have committed 
can be forgotten — every sin which has been committed 
during the past eighteen hundred years can be forgiven by 
Him. Now look at His life — look at Him from the manger 
to Calvary, and see if you can find any flaw in Him. You 
hear people talking about the imperfections of Christians, 



BEHOLD! 



271 



and making this an excuse for not accepting Him. They 
point to some of them, and say they have done this and 
that y but, my friends, it is impossible to find a perfect 
Christian. They will not be perfect till they arrive in the 
kingdom of the Master and they are washed in the blood 
of the Lamb. Lift your eyes from off these puny Chris- 
tians — from off these human ministers, and look to Christ. 
He is the Saviour of the world. He came from the throne 
to this earth ; He came from the very bosom of the father. 
God gave Him up freely for us, and all we have to do is 
to accept Him as our Saviour. Look at Him at Gethse- 
mane, sweating as it were great drops of blood ; look at 
Him on the Cross, crucified between two thieves ; hear 
that piercing cry, " Father, Father, forgive them, they 
know not what they do ; " and as you look into that face, 
as you look into those wounds on His feet or His hands, 
will you say He has not the power to save you ? Will you 
say He has not the power to redeem you ? Look into His 
face. Can you say the Lamb of God will not take away 
your sins ? All you have to do is to accept Him, and they 
are all forgiven. A great many people want to bring their 
faith, their works, their good deeds to Him for salvation. 
Bring your sins and He will bear them away into the wild- 
erness of forgetfulness, and you will never see them again. 
There is another "behold," and a very important one : 
It is a " behold " of Paul : " Behold, now is the accepted 
time." Now some people may listen to this carelessly. 
" Why, we have heard that from childhood up. ' Now is 
the accepted time.' We don't like that forced upon us, 
as if this was the only time to be saved." Suppose I say, 
"Behold, ten years hence will be the accepted time," 
wouldn't you think I had gone mad. You would say, " I 
might die before that time." You know that it is now. 
You cannot roll back the wheel of time. Every hour that 
passes is gone forever. You cannot look forward ten years. 



272 GREAT JOY. 

You may be in eternity then. You cannot say the future 
is yours. The only time we have is now. " Behold, now 
is the accepted time," and salvation is offered you to-night, 
and God wants you to take it. How many have been 
swept into eternity since we began to hold our meetings in 
the Tabernacle. Not less than eight or nine, to my knowl- 
edge, have been taken away. How many will go in the 
coming eight weeks ? Only think of it. Some of them 
now move through those mansions Christ has prepared for 
them ; they are now walking down the crystal pavements 
of heaven ; they may be walking to the tree of life and 
plucking its fruit. They are now with the redeemed and 
the Redeemer. They are now singing the sweet hallelu- 
jahs of heaven — a sweeter song than they^ever heard on 
earth. But think of those who have gone to the dark cav- 
erns of hell — now with the fiends of darkness, now in the 
land where there is no hope, now listening to the wail of 
despair. You can accept salvation now. The idea of 
standing still, thinking you have time to accept Christ, is a 
delusion of the devil. Don't be deceived by Satan. We 
are in the current of time that is bearing us on to eternity. 
While we sleep and are unconscious, we are being borne 
swiftly to the judgment seat, and we may be there before 
we know. Look at that man on the river that runs to the 
rapids ! Look at him as he drifts with the current on to 
death ! In a few minutes he will be in eternity, and he is 
not aware of it. There are thousands here sweeping on 
to death and judgment. " Now is the accepted time." 
Escape to-night, and accept the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
thou shalt be saved. 

But there is another " behold." " Behold, I stand at 
the door and knock." He stands at the door of the sin- 
ner's heart and knocks. Does your hearts thrill to-night, 
my friends. That is the Son of God knocking at your 
heart. You haven't to go down and bring Him up, nor go 



BEHOLD! 



273 



up and bring Him down. He is right here to-night. Is 
there a skeptical one doubts his presence here ? What 
man could hold this immense audience during the past 
eight weeks but Him ? Is there any political subject that 
could keep an audience every night for eight weeks as this 
has been kept ? Or if a man came here to talk poetry or 
science, could he have such an assemblage? Surely it 
cannot be the singer or the preacher. There is an unseen 
power — a supernatural agency. It is the Son of God, my 
friends ; and He is here to-night, and stands at your heart 
and says, " Behold, I stand at the door and knock." If 
any one here hearkens to His voice and opens the door, 
He says with him, " I will come unto him and sup with him, 
and he with me." And no man, if he only enters to Him, 
will go down to the caverns of death and damnation ; but 
if you reject Him, and shut and lock and bolt the door of 
your heart, He cannot come in, and, of course, you must 
perish. In one part of Scripture he says He " stands with 
his locks wet with the dew of the night." He stands now. 
A man in the inquiry room said he made a vow some years 
ago to come' to Christ. He was knocking at his heart then, 
but for thirty years he kept Him out. This week he let 
Him in. Think how merciful God is. He might have 
called that man away to eternity during those thirty years. 
Listen, sinners ; perhaps He is making His last call to you. 
A friend of mine once said, when Christ came first he 
knocked pretty loud. The second time conscience was 
not so keen, and it was not so loud. When he came a 
third time His knock was fainter, and the fourth time 
fainter still, and the fifth time almost inaudible, till by and 
by He could not be heard at all. Is not that the case with 
some here ? Christ stands knocking now. You may put 
Christ off — that is man's free will — but you cannot put 
death off. When he comes and puts his cold hand upon 
you, feeling for the cords.of life, you cannot put him off. 

18 



274 GREAT JOY. 

The question will then be settled for time and eternity, and 
then you must answer at the judgment seat. " Behold, I 
stand at the door and knock." Sinner, what will you do 
to-night ? Young man, don't laugh ! Don't make light of 
this question. One of two things you must do — either 
reject Him or receive Him : either keep Him out of your 
heart or take Him in. 

And there is another " Behold." It is a 'behold they 
heard of in the days of Paul. You know when they heard 
that Paul was praying, it did not come from Damascus, 
from Rome, or Jerusalem ; it came from heaven. " Behold, 
he is praying." I hope some are praying here to-night. 
Let the news go up to heaven, " Behold, he prays," and 
" Behold, she prays," and an answer will come. If you pray 
from the depths of your soul an answer will come to-night. 
If you want to accept on this, the last night of our meetings 
this week, the waters of life, you can. Just lift up your 
heart, and the message will go up, " Behold, he prays." 
Let all Christians here pray. Let there be a silent wave 
of prayer go up to heaven, and let those who have never 
prayed ask God for mercy. Let these little children pray, 
I like to hear children praying. Sometimes a child's pray- 
ers have more effect than any others. How many infidel 
fathers and mothers have been brought to Christ by their 
praying children. I remember while out in Kansas, while 
holding a meeting, I saw a little boy who came to the win- 
dow, crying. I went to him and said : " My little boy, what 
is your trouble ? " " Why, Mr. Moody, my mother's dead, 
and my father drinks, and they don't love me, and the 
Lord won't have anything to do with me because I am a 
poor drunkard's boy." " You have got a wrong idea, my 
boy ; Jesus will love you and save you and your father too," 
and I told him a story of a little boy in an Eastern city. 
The boy said his father would never allow the canting 
hypocrites of Christians to come Into his house, and would 



BEHOLD ! 



275 



never allow his child to go to Sunday school. A kind- 
hearted man got his little boy and brought him to Christ. 
When Christ gets into a man's heart he cannot help to 
pray. This father had been drinking one day, and coming 
home he heard the boy praying. He went to him and 
and said : " I don't want you to pray any more. You've 
been along with some of those Christians. If I catch you 
praying again I'll flog you." But the boy was filled with 
God and he couldn't help praying. The door of com- 
munication was opened between him and Christ, and his 
father caught him praying again. He went to him. 
" Didn't I tell you never to pray again. If I catch you at 
it once more you leave my house." He thought he would 
stop him. One day the old temper came upon the boy, 
and he did something wrong and got flogged. When he 
got over his mad fit he forgot the threats of his father, and 
went to pray. His father had been drinking more than 
usual, and coming in found the boy offering a prayer. He 
caught the boy with a push and said, " Didn't I tell you 
never to pray again ? Leave this house. Get your things 
packed up and go." The little fellow hadn't many things 
to get together — -a drunkard's boy never has, and he went up 
to his mother's room. " Good-by, mother." " Where are 
you going ? " "I don't know where I'll go, but father 
says I cannot stay here any longer. I've been praying 
again," he said. The mother knew it wouldn't do to try 
to keep the boy when her husband had ordered him away, 
so she drew him to her bosom and kissed him, and bid 
him good-bye. He went to his brothers and sisters and 
kissed them good-bye. When he came to the door his 
father was there, and the little fellow reached out his hand 
— "Good-bye, father; as long as I live I will pray for you," 
and left the house. He hadn't been gone many minutes 
when that father rushed after him. " My boy, if that is 
religion ; if it can drive you away from father and mother 



276 GREAT JOY. 

and home, I want it." Yes, may be some little boy here 
to-night has got a drinking father and mother. Lift your 
voice to heaven, and the news will be carried up to heaven, 
"he prays." Yes, Paul prayed, and the news went, " he 
prayeth," and let all Christians lift their voices up to 
heaven, and let all who have not accepted Christ, cry, and 
he will hear you, " God be merciful to me a sinner." Let 
us unite in silent prayer. 



HOW TO CONDUCT INQUIRY MEETINGS. 



I've chosen as my subject this morning, " How to Hold 
an Inquiry Meeting ; or, what are best-adapted Texts of 
Scripture to be dwelt upon at these Meetings ? " Of course 
I am not going to quote all the texts that could be used, 
and to good advantage : I am just going to bring to mind 
some few of the best ones. And what I want first to call 
your attention to, if you are going to be successful in win- 
ning souls to Christ, is the need for discrimination in find- 
ing out people's differences. People are not the same in 
their wants spiritual more than temporal. What is good 
for one is rank poison for another. Yov can't treat all 
alike. I've a friend that always, when he is sick, drinks a 
lot of hot water, and goes to bed. Another says to me, 
just take this dose and you will get well. It don't make 
any difference what's the matter with you, this friend has 
one single remedy. So many have just one verse of Scrip- 
ture. He's always quoting it. It fits his case, and he 
thinks it does everybody else's. A man I knew up in Wis- 
consin was converted under a railway bridge, and to this 
day he keeps urging people to go right down under that 
bridge if they want to get converted sure. But God never 
repeats Himself. No two thoughts are just alike, no two 
needs are just alike, no two sinners are going to come to 
Christ in the same precise way. Instead of looking for 
others' experiences, look for one for yourself. So when 
talking to persons in the inquiry-room, you must find out 
just these differences. Now, I am going to divide inquirers 



278 GREAT JOY. 

into classes or divisions this morning, and point out a few 
passages suitable for each. 

The first class, I think, in point of numbers, is that of 
the doubters — those who are always in doubting castle. 
And these generally are among professing Christians. Oh, 
I think we shall make a different start with these when we 
get to Boston from what we did here. I'm convinced we 
made a mistake here in not opening the inquiry-rooms 
for professing Christians first. For twenty or thirty years 
they have been living on, making empty professions. Now, 
they just want to get off their crutches, and get to walking 
and running for Christ. I don't believe they can accom- 
plish much ; I know they can't, if they continue in this half- 
dead state. If Christians haven't assurance, they are just 
stumbling-blocks — they are in the way of the work. How 
many hurts these professing Christians give, who show no 
sign of their faith ! They have no joy in serving the Lord, 
and their children, with reason, say, " I don't want that kind 
of a religion." And here I want to call your attention to a 
proper remedy for this class, to be found in the Book of 
John. That whole book was written for this one thing, to 
help people out of doubting castle, and teach them that 
they may know they are saved. Only Friday last I met a 
woman, a prominent member of a prominent church, who 
said it was presumption to say with certainty that we are 
saved. I said it was presumption to say that we are not 
saved, when we have the very word of the Lord Jesus 
Christ for it. Oh, if you will just read those precious 
words : " He that heareth my words and believeth on Him 
that sent Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into 
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life ; " and 
then turn to those other divine words : " These things have 
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of 
God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that 
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God : " if you 



HO W TO COND UC T INQ UIR Y MEE TINGS. 279 

will just read these sure words of God, you will not talk 
about having no assurance as to your salvation. Just be- 
lieve in the words of the Son of God, and you know right 
now that you are saved. You know right now, I say, and 
don't have to put it oil* till you are going to die. There- 
fore, I would talk to these doubting citizens about the 
Epistle of John. I would say to you, persuade them to 
take these words of Jesus : " They have passed from death 
to life." Oh, yes, it is the privilege of every child of God 
to know that he is saved. 

The next class are the backsliding. They do not want 
so much assurance as reviving. I know a lady who has a 
homoeopathic doctor's book, and whenever she is at all out 
of sorts she goes right to it. In spiritual things there is a 
good remedy for all sorts, and for the backsliders as well. 
Though they have left God, He makes a way for them to 
return. I have just turned down the leaves of my Bible 
at the second and third chapters of Jeremiah. I don't 
think any one can feel this way with that Bible in hand. 
" Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers 
found in me that they are gone far from me, and have 
walked after vanity and are become vain ? " Now, what 
did Christ ever do against you ? Did He ever lie to you? 
Did he ever abuse you ? Did he ever deceive you ? Only 
one man ever said that, and he was out of his head, and 
any one would know he was. No man can accuse Christ 
of any bias or offence. " What iniquity have you found in 
me ? " None at all. The trouble has been with ourselves. 
It was He that brought the early Church through the wil- 
derness, through all the dangers of the way, and into the 
promised land. It is He that gives you power and lifts 
you up. Oh say, then, what evil or iniquity have you found 
in Him ? The trouble is with you, O backsliders, who "have 
forsaken the fountains of living waters, and hewed out cis- 
terns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." The nine- 



280 GREAT JOY. 

teenth verse says : " Thine own wickedness shall convict 
thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee ; know, there- 
fore, and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou 
hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in 
thee, saith the Lord of Hosts." Enforce the miseries of 
this text, and then use the exhortation of the third chapter, 
twenty-second verse : " Return, ye backsliding children, 
and I will heal your backsliding. Behold, we come unto 
thee, for thou art the Lord our God." And then the four- 
teenth verse : " Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou 
hast transgressed against the Lord thy God." I remember 
repeating these promises to a backslider, and he couldn't 
believe them at first for joy. How tender these words of 
Scripture to the backslider ! Bring these words right to 
bear on them, and tell how God pleads with them. Read 
to them the opening words of Hosea, fourteenth chapter : 
" Return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by 
thine iniquity; say unto him, take away all iniquity and 
receive us graciously. * * I (God) will heal their back- 
sliding, I will love them freely ; for mine anger is turned 
away." Then bring up the story of the prodigal for illus- 
tration ; also the Apostle Peter, how he was drawn to God 
after grievously backsliding, and how he was even admitted 
to the blessings of Pentecost. Then say : " You, too, can 
be restored if you only believe, and God will yet make you 
a blessing to believers." 

The third class are those who are not stricken by their 
sins ; who have- no deep conviction of guilt. Just bring the 
law of God to bear on these, and show them themselves in 
their true light. Repeat Romans, third chapter, tenth 
verse : " There is none righteous, no, not one ;" also the 
succeeding verses ; and then repeat from Isaiah : " The 
whole head is sick and the whole heart faint ; from the 
sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness, 
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores," And then 



HO W TO COND UCT INQ UIR Y MEE TINGS. 2 8 1 

bring in that verse, " The heart is deceitful above all things 
and desperately wicked." Don't try to heal the wound be- 
fore the hurt is felt. You may, perhaps, get but few satisfac- 
tory inquirers in this way, but what you do get are worth 
something. If a man don't see his guilt, he won't be a val- 
uable or true convert. Read him the first chapter of First 
John, tenth verse : " If we say that we have rfot sinned, we 
make him a liar, and his word is not in us," and hold him 
right to it. Don't attempt to give the consolations of the 
Gospel until your converts see they have sinned — see it 
and feel it. I met a man who expressed doubts about his 
being much of a sinner. " Well," said I, " let's find out if 
you have sinned. Do you swear?" "Well, as a general 
rule, I only swear when I get mad." " Yes, yes ; but what 
does the Lord say about not holding a man guiltless that 
swears? Believe me, He will hold you responsible for 
that ; bear that in mind ; you must be able to hold your 
temper, but if not, beware to take the name of God in vain. 
Are you not now a sinner ? " And the man was convinced. 
Sometimes, too, I've found a merchant this way ; and yet 
one openly confesses to me that he did cheat sometimes. 
" You lie, then, don't you ? " said I. He didn't want to put 
it quite so plainly, but pretty soon saw it in my light. Oh 
yes ; enforce this truth kindly but firmly, that our natural 
hearts are as black and deceitful as hell. Man must say 
from his heart, " I have sinned and come short of the glory 
of God." 

The fourth class are those completely broken down by 
a sense of sin, those who have too much conviction of sin 
distinguished from the preceding inquirers, who haven't 
enough. One of these tells you that God can't save such 
as he. Then you have to prove his mistake, and show that 
God can save to the uttermost. Take the first chapter of 
Isaiah, eighteenth verse : " Come now, and let us reason 
together, saith the Lord ; though your sins be as scarlet, they 



282 GREAT JOY. 

shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, 
they shall be as wool." Just turn your Bible right over to 
that passage, and many such passages in Isaiah : they will 
all help in the inquiry room. The forty-third chapter, 
twenty-fifth verse says : " I even I, am He that blotteth out 
thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remem- 
ber thy sins." And the twenty-second verse of the next 
chapter is stronger : " I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, 
thy transgressions, and as a cloud, thy sins : return unto 
Me, for I have redeemed thee." Make the anxious soul 
believe that God has blotted out his sins as a thick cloud ; 
make him see the dense cloud vanishing, as it were, from 
the face of the sun, vanishing forever ; that cloud can 
never come up again ; others may, but that old cloud of 
the past guilt is dissolved forever ; the Lord Himself has 
blotted it out. Use the two verses, John i., n, 12 : "He 
came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But 
as many as received Him, to them gave He power to be- 
come the sons of God, even to them that believe on His 
name." The idea is that those fearing ones cannot serve 
God until they receive Christ fully as their salvation ; it 
won't do for them to merely take up with some minister or 
church or creed. The minister dies or moves away ; the 
only lasting resource is in Christ at the right hand of God, 
where He will never forsake His own. Yes, press Jesus 
upon these anxious souls. Tell them " God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son," etc. " So 
loved the world ; " that includes them ; if they inhabited 
some other land they might tremble, but they are on this 
earth, for all the sons and daughters of which Christ died, 
the just for the unjust. Use, also, the text : " Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words and be- 
lieveth on Him that sent Me shall not come into condem- 
nation but has passed from death unto life." Now, some 
people do not just understand believing in Christ. They 



HO W TO COND UCT INQ UIR Y MEE TINGS. 283 

believe Christ came as an historical being, as Moses, and 
Elijah came. They believe the Cunard line of steamers 
will take them to Liverpool in twelve or fourteen days. 
But these beliefs don't make men good ; they are head be- 
liefs only. They are not what your inquirers want. What 
you and they want is heart belief, or, in other words, to 
just trust Christ to save you. Sometimes people can't 
digest the word "belief ; " then let them take this sweet 
word " trust." From Isaiah xxvi., 3, 4, read to them : 
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
on Thee ; because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the 
Lord forever ; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
strength." By trusting in Him, you see we have everlast- 
ing strength. You must get them to trust and believe 
entirely in Christ, and not try to save themselves. They 
cannot save themselves by their feelings ; assure them of 
that. There is not a word of warrant for such a thought 
from the first of Genesis to the last of Revelation. Oh, it 
is much better to trust in the precious, changeless word of 
God than in our own changing feelings ; thank God, that 
this is also our duty ! 

Then you hear some inquirers say, "I haven't got 
strength sufficient." But Christ died to be their strength. 
A loving hand wiil support them in the Christian journey, 
and " his strength will be made perfect in weakness." Bid 
such be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 

And then another class that cannot be saved in this 
way, they think, because doubting instantaneous conver- 
sion. Read to such from Romans, — the 6th chapter, 23d 
verse : " The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is 
eternal life." Salvation is a gift and so must have a defi- 
nite point in time. I say, "Will you take this Bible ? " 
You must first make up your mind to take it, and then 
reach out and — the work of an instant — grasp the gift. 
Just so with God's best gift, salvation; to take it is the 



2&4 GREAT JOY. 

work of an instant, and your inquirer may have it for the 
asking. " Let him that heareth say come ; " " whosoever 
will, let him come and drink of the water of life freely." 
With the gift God gives the power to take it. When we 
get before the tribunal of the great white throne we will 
have to answer for it if we refuse to take it. This is the 
richest jewel that heaven has ; God gives up His Son for 
our Saviour. 

Another class say to you and me, when, in the inquiry 
room, we press them to openly confess Christ, " We're 
afraid we won't hold out." Say to these repeatedly that 
blessed text, "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from 
falling." Think, and tell them to think of the thousands 
who never fall. The idea that it is necessary to fall into 
sin is wrong. Then take those passages : " I, the Lord 
thy God, will take thy right hand," " Fear not, I will lead 
thee," and " I am persuaded that I will be able to keep 
them that are committed unto me against that day." Let 
a man just trust the Lord to keep him from falling and He 
will do it. Suppose I have a hundred thousand dollars 
with me ; it's all I have in the world ; thieves are after it, 
and I'm quaking every minute lest they get it. I find my 
banker here, and I say, " Here, take it quick ; I can't keep 
my money but by your help ; I wish you would hurry and 
put it in the vault ; when it's deposited there, and not 
before, I shall be safe." Is not this the way to give our 
all into God's keeping ? Is not this the way to live secure 
from temptation and backsliding? In God's keeping we 
are safe. " Our life is hid with Christ in God ? " Oh, let 
us each make this deposit of our personal trust this morn- 
ing ; trust him entirely, and then we can the better lead 
inquirers in the same way. Jesus can hold us close to 
Himself. " Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature 
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord." If you just take up the words 



HO W TO COND UCT INQ UIR Y MEE TINGS. 285 

of Christ in the book of Romans, love and peace and joy 
flow out. One verse tells of love ; the next of joy ; the 
next and next of the peace that comes from believing 
Romans, fourth chapter and twenty-eighth verse, and all 
those verses along there might be read. The result of be- 
lieving is joy, rest, and peace. John xv., 11 — that is joy. 
Matthew xi., 28 — that is rest. John xiv., 27 — that is peace. 
Never, however, tell a man he is converted. Never tell 
him he is saved. Let him find that out from heaven. You 
can't afford to deceive one about this great question. But 
you can help his faith and trust, and lead him right. I find 
that those in the inquiry room do best who do not run 
about from one to another, offering words of encourage- 
ment everywhere. They would better go to but one or two 
of an afternoon or evening. We are building for eternity, 
and can take time. The work will not then be superficial. 
If it is so, it will not be the fault of the workers or 
preachers. And then, to do all our duty, we must talk 
.more of restitution. I don't think we preach enough the 
need of our making good to one another injuries to person, 
property, or feeling. If you have done one a detriment 
you must go and pay it back or make it up, if it is a tangi- 
ble loss, and if it is a wound to the feelings, fully apologize. 
It is a good deal better to go up and do the fair thing, 
whatever the result. It may be that some will refuse such 
amends, but it is our duty to offer them. But in the end a 
complete reconciliation from such a course is almost sure 
to result. The antipathy supposed to exist on the other 
side is often only imagined. You need not expect that 
God is going to forgive you if you don't forgive others. 
We say daily, " Forgive, us our debts as we forgive our 
debtors," and we must show that we understand this con- 
ditional request What if God should take us at our word 
and just forgive us to the extent to which our small griev- 
ances are forgiven ! And this He surely will do ; so let us 



286 GREAT JOY. 

be wise. A young lady in Michigan, at a recent revival 
service, was troubled greatly, and to kind inquiries at last 
confessed that her unwillingness to confess Christ resulted 
from a school-room quarrel which was still unsettled. She 
felt she couldn't forgive her enemy, but at last told her 
trouble and asked for advice. " Must she forgive her mate ?" 
" Certainly, if you want God's forgiveness," was the answer 
of the minister, and immediately she ran with all her might 
to her old friend, and, instead of meeting a cold reception, 
they were soon crying on each other's necks. . And so it 
always should be, and most always there will be the same 
prompt half-way meeting' between those aggrieved. My 
wife was laboring in the inquiry-room the other evening 
with a lady who was in just this state of mind, and very 
soon reparation and complete reconciliation were effected, 
and two old friends walked off arm in arm, happier than 
ever before this little misunderstanding. And one of those 
ladies felt so strong in her new-found charity for all, that 
she won over her husband, and last Sunday he openly in 
the Tabernacle confessed Christ, remembering that " with 
the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Many more 
texts, did time allow, might be cited, all applicable to 
anxious inquirers. 

But one word more. Do not let a man go out of the 
inquiry-room without praying with him. Fear not, but do 
the work boldly. There was a man the other day who 
said, " I don't believe there's any God." The resolute 
Christian worker, to whom he spoke answered impetuously, 
" I will just ask God to shake you — to just shake this demon 
out of you." And down he fell on his knees by the poor 
infidel and prated with loud earnestness. The man began 
to shake from head to foot. It was God shaking him. 
And by just these means, more than any others, skeptics 
and infidels will know there is a God. Let me say a word 
to those ministers that have not and do not go into the 



HO W TO COND UCT INQ UIR V MEE TINGS. 287 

inquiry-room. Many in your flocks, never seeing you 
there, think you are not in sympathy with this work, and 
then begin to think you don't care anything about 
their salvation. They feel in bondage, and do not go to 
help them. Well, there was a minister in a city we visited , 
who did not " condescend "to be seen in our humble 
Tabernacle. He would have nothing to do with us. One 
day he was at a dinner party where they were discussing 
our work. Said he : " That sort of thing is good enough 
for those people, but it would never do for me." " Well," 
said another clergyman of the same belief, " fifty-seven 
of your congregation stood up in the Tabernacle for prayers 
to-day, and all of them afterward went into the inquiry- 
room." The cultured and popular pastor of those Chris- 
tians could not kill the humane promptings to be charitable 
to all professing the name of Christ, and to worship along 
with such even in perhaps irregular modes. But with the 
cordial co-operation of every Christian pastor in the 
Tabernacle and inquiry-room, what limit would there be 
to the Christian inroads on the citadels of sin ? Oh, make 
it a duty, all of you, to talk to some soul at every meeting 
in these blessed inquiry-rooms. Don't take those in a 
position in life above your own, but take those on the same 
footing. Bend all your endeavors to answer for poor, 
struggling souls that question of all importance to them, 
" What must I do to be saved ? " Yes, this is the question. 
What else but to answer it brought out these thousands at 
this early hour ! My friends, God is with- you in this work ; 
go on more diligently and implicitly trusting in Him ; go 
on to a more and more glorious harvest. Let us pray. 



THE PENITENT THIEF. 



I want to call attention this evening to the conversion 
of the thief on the cross. I have spoken two or three 
times about sudden conversions, and have been approached 
by several people upon the subject. This morning two 
ladies came to me after the meeting and said they were in 
darkness, because I had been preaching that people could 
be converted suddenly. I thought we had got beyond that 
question. I thought I had got beyond that last Thursday 
night when trying to prove that conversion was instan- 
taneous ; but it seems we have not, and I want to call at- 
tention to it to-night. Well, we are told, by both Matthew 
and Mark, that these two thieves, who were hung up on 
either side of Him, reviled Him and scoffed at Him, as 
did the crowd. They cast His title in His teeth. We are 
told there was no difference between those men. Both had 
been in rebellion against God all their lives. Both were 
led out to execution as thieves and malefactors on the 
same day ; but one of them was converted duiing the day, 
and the other was not. Over one of them came a won- 
derful change. What was it ? How was it ? What brought 
him under conviction ? I don't know ; but one thing I do 
know — he was convicted of sin, and confessed, and Christ 
saved him and snatched him from the very borders of hell. 
It says in Isaiah that He came to take the power from the 
mighty. Here was one who had been brought to the very 
borders of the pit by Satan, and yet Christ, whenever he 
called upon Him, was ready to help him. The thief had 
only to cry to Him and he was pardoned. You would 
288 



THE PENITENT THIEF. 289 

think He had all He could do in attending to His own 
sufferings, when nailed to that tree, but the first cry from 
that thief was heard and answered. My friends, the Son 
of God was never in a position where He could not hear a 
sinner's prayers. No sinner ever uttered a cry that was 
not heard by Him. This man had no works to offer Him, 
no deeds of righteousness to bring before Him. He was 
a lost, ruined sinner. He had nothing to commend him- 
self — nothing to offer. There he was, all mangled and 
bruised in consequence of his own sin. He had not only 
been a thief, but the very worst kind of a thief. I suppose 
he was a companion of Barabbas and of the most notori- 
ous thieves in the country. I have no doubt he was a high- 
wayman, and guilty of murder. He had been tried, but 
his trial had not broken his heart ; the scourge had not 
softened him ; imprisonment had not brought repentance. 
There he was on the cross, his heart as hard as ever, nailed 
hand and foot, and reviling the Son of God. I can just 
imagine what came over him when he heard the Son of 
God exclaim. " Father, forgive them, for they know not 
what they do." I can imagine this thief saying, when he 
heard this, " That is a strange thing to say. If I had the 
power I couldn't forgive them, but would call down fire 
from heaven to consume these wretches who are making 
jests about me." Perhaps it was the very cry of Christ on 
the cross while all those people were reviling Him and 
wagging their heads that convicted him, and that saved 
him. When He had uttered this prayer one of the male- 
factors reviled Him, and we find his companion rebuking 
him, saying : " Dost thou fear God ? " We are told in 
Proverbs that " the fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
knowledge," and there is no hope for a sinner till the fear 
of God comes upon him. Sometimes in an audience like 
this a text similar to this one strikes into the heart of 
the people, and the fear of God comes upon them and 

19 



290 GREAT JOY. 

they begin to see knowledge. I hope that may be the 
case to-night. This thief had been tried and scourged, 
the nails had been driven into his hands and feet, and 
he was suffering the agonies of the terrible death of the 
crucifixion, yet we find that then the fear of the Lord came 
upon him, and the moment the fear of God came upon him 
he confessed Christ. Not only did he confess Christ, but 
he confessed his own sins and turned and rebuked the 
thief on the other side of the cross, for we read that he 
said, " We receive the due reward of our deeds, but this 
man hath done nothing amiss." He confessed that he had 
been a sinner, and he was getting his just reward — death ; 
and then there was hope for the man to be saved. This 
was the first step. There is no hope for a man being 
saved till he knows he is a sinner ; there is no hope for a 
man who folds his arms and says, " I am willing to take 
the consequences if I am a sinner ; I don't thing God will 
condemn me." This thief stood when he confessed where 
every sinner ought to stand. He took his place as a sin- 
ner ; he confessed his sins, and if you are to be saved to- 
night you must take your place before God as a sinner. If 
a man does not admit that he is a sinner, and that he has 
gone astray, there is no chance for God to forgive him. 
Suppose my boy has disobeyed me ; suppose he has told 
me a falsehood, and he won't ask my forgiveness ; won't 
acknowledge that he has told a falsehood. I can't forgive 
him. I must first get him to admit that he has told a lie, 
and when he does that then I can forgive him. So we 
must confess our sins, acknowledge that we have committed 
sin in God's sight before he can forgive us. This thief 
confessed his sins and confessed Christ. " We receive the 
due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing 
amiss." A great many men in Chicago think that Christ 
did many things amiss, but the poor thief, who probably 
never heard the gospel in his life, who had perhaps lived 



THE PENITENT THIEF. 291 

in an atmosphere of crime, said, " This man halh done 
nothing amiss." He confessed him. That must have been 
a sweet moment in this, the darkest hour of His life. Judas 
had betrayed Him for thirty pieces of silver. Peter had 
denied Him. He had been brought before Caiaphas and 
had been tried and found guilty by the Sanhedrim, and a 
howling multitude around Him jeering at His sufferings 
and wagging their heads, saying : " If thou be Christ, save 
Thyself." How pleasant it must have been to the Son of 
Man to hear the confession of this thief in those moments 
of bitterness. We read of Abraham in the promised land 
twenty-five years with abundant proofs of God's love -to 
build up his faith, and yet he did not seem to have as much 
faith as this man. We read of Moses in the wilderness for 
forty years. He saw God's mighty hand leading the chil- 
dren through the Red Sea ; he saw the water coming from 
the rock ; he had everything to give him faith in his God, 
and yet he had not as much faith as this poor thief who, 
during his life, had nothing to school him in the faith of 
God. Look at Elijah. How much God gave him, how 
much He did for him, how miraculously He took care of 
him : he had everything to build up his faith ; but here is 
a man who had never heard the gospel, who had never met 
Him before, who had mingled with the blasphemers, who 
had associated with the revilers and consorted with the 
worst classes of thieves. Why, if he had lived in Chicago 
to-day, and we had looked over the annals of crime, we 
would have found that he had been familiar with the Peni- 
tentiary, and yet this man as black as sin, and standing on 
the borders of hell, confessed Him and was saved. Peter 
had seen Him when raised from the dead, had witnessed 
the transfiguration, and he hadn't the faith of this man. I 
consider this one of the most remarkable evidences of con- 
version suddenly — the faith of this man on Calvary. He 
had heard none of His sermons, he had none of His mira- 



292 GREAT JOY. 

cles, and yet the very day he met Christ he was convicted 
and confessed, and took his place before Him as a sinner. 
He owned himself a sinner, and I tell you a man can never 
be saved till he has owned himself a sinner. If he tries 
to put before Christ his own deeds, and justify himself, 
there is no hope for his salvation. This man merely took 
his place before Christ among the sinners, and his faith 
saved Him. 

When I was a boy, I used to be a pretty bad speller— I 
haven't improved much since — and I remember one day 
a word was given in the class. All passed the word, but 
when it came to me I was able to spell it and got clear up 
to the head of the class, and I was very proud of my pro- 
motion. If you will allow me the expression, this thief 
by his faith got clear up from the bottom to the head of 
the class. He passed by all the men of God and took his 
lead at the top of the class. He surpassed Peter, he sur- 
passed Abraham, Noah, Elijah, Moses, and all of them 
when he said, "Why, this man hath done nothing amiss." 
Thank God for faith, thank God for this testimony, thank 
God for this confession. But what did he next do ? He 
called Him " Lord." That is the marvellous thing. He 
was suffering upon that cross, his hands and feet nailed to 
it, and he called Him " Lord." Why, there was no sceptre 
in his hand • there was no crown on His head, except a 
crown of thorns, which sent the blood trickling down 
his face, causing Him to look hideous. He was a sorry 
sight, and amid the jeers of the multitude he called 
Him " Lord." Thank God for such faith. My friends, 
call Him Lord to-night. His prayer was short. He put it 
into three words, " Lord, remember me." It was short, 
but it was a chain of golden leaves. He owned Him. 
" Lord remember me when Thou comest into Thy king- 
dom." What was it that induced this man to call him Lord, 
and ask him to remember him when He came . into His 



THE PENITENT THIEF. 



293 



kingdom. The idea of the man nailed to that cross and 
bleeding from His wounds having a kingdom ! If He had 
a kingdom where were his subjects ? See that howling 
crowd wagging their heads and reviling Him, and when he 
asked a draught of water they brought him vinegar. They 
were not His subjects. Where was the kingdom ? His 
faith went beyond that, and that is what faith does. He 
didn't look upon his surroundings, but trusted him and 
cried to Him, " Lord, remember me." And how quick the 
answer came. " Lord, remember me when Thou comest 
unto Thy kingdom," and back came the answer : " To-day 
thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." He got more than 
he asked for ; and, my friends, when a man comes to 
Christ in faith he receives more than he asks. " To-day 
thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." Here was, with- 
out conversation, sudden salvation, and I think that 
this is a proof which, if we are honest, ought to for- 
ever settle the question. How we linger around the 
death-bed of a man and hesitate about believing him ac- 
cepted if he has not partaken of the Sacrament. If he 
hasn't people are in great distress. Now this man 
never partook of the Sacrament. Remember, I am saying 
nothing against the ordinance. _ May my tongue cleave to 
the roof of my mouth when I say anything against the or- 
dinance commemorating the death of our Saviour. I am 
saying nothing against the blessed ordinance when I say 
it has nothing to do with salvation. It is distinct. This 
man's conversion was instantaneous. He had never been 
a Christian ; he had never accepted a single Christian or- 
dinance ; he had never worked for Him, and yet when he 
called upon Him he was saved. The man had been a 
thief — a highway robber. His feet were nailed to that 
cross, and he could not have worked for Him if he'd want- 
ed, but they could not nail his heart, and with his heart 
that man believed and the blessed Lord gave him salvation. 



294 GREAT JOY. 

If you but believe on Him to-night with your heart you 
will be saved. Christ did not look at his works. My 
friends, let us keep salvation in its place. It is distinct 
from wcrks, and any man or woman can be saved before 
leaving this Tabernacle to-night ; can be saved without 
lifting their hands, without moving an eyelash. If this 
thief had lived fifty years he could not have done Him 
better service than by testifying his faith on that cross. 
His prayer has come down these 1,800 years, and it's an- 
swer is a testimony of His love and forgiveness to the 
sinner. In the morning he was led out from that prison a 
blasphemer reviling Christ, and in the evening he was wahV 
ing the crystal pavements of heaven. He only asked to 
be remembered, and the answer came : " To-day thou shalt 
be with Me in Paradise." Thanks be to God, He was not 
ashamed of the poor thief. The moment the cry came 
from his lips a welcome was given him. 

Now, my friends, why not make the prayer of this thief 
to-night. If we make it from the heart we can be saved to- 
night. Thank God, we have communication from the 
Tabernacle to the throne, and an earnest prayer can go 
from this building and will be answered. Suppose you 
make it now, " Lord, remember me." Who cannot say 
that ? Who cannot say from their heart : " Lord, remember 
me." Make it a personal prayer. It is a very short one. 
Every prayer in the Bible that brought salvation is very 
short. Peter's prayer was only " Lord, save me." Some 
one has said, if he had made a long preamble he would 
have been forty feet under water. It was simply " Lord, 
save me." Just say " Lord, remember me," and He will 
remember you. Simply do as the thief did, and you will 
be saved. That is what I call instantaneous conversion. 

Now this thief, as I said before, when led out from the 
prison that morning had no thought of being saved. His 
heart was not touched by the trial, he did not feel sorry for 



THE PENITENT THIEF. 



295 



what he had done. He was hung up on one side of 
Christ, and reviled Him, and the moment he asked Him to 
be remembered he got His forgiveness. He might have 
" replied : " You miserable thief, you have scoffed at religion 
all your life ; you were reviling me just now, and why 
should I forgive you ? " but instead of that came the 
answer : " To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." It 
is said of Whitfield that he once exclaimed: ''Why, the 
Lord is so anxious to save sinners that He is willing to 
take the devil's castaways." Lady Huntly heard him, and 
took exceptions to his utterance. ** The idea," she said 
" of the Lord being willing to take the devil's castaways." 
She wouldn't believe him ; but shortly after a poor fallen 
woman came to him and said : " You told us the other night 
that the Lord was willing to take the devil's castaways." 
She admitted her sin and accepted Him. My friends, the 
Son will save the vilest in Chicago to-night if they will only 
admit their guilt. I was greatly cheered this afternoon 
when two men went into the inquiry room, and I got down 
to pray with them. After I had prayed with them they did 
not spring up on their feet as inquirers very often do. 
One of them cried, " God be merciful to me a sinner ; that's 
all I can say." " That's enough," I said ; " that was all the 
publican could say, and he went down to his house saved, 
because it came from his heart." The other man could 
only say. " Lord save me," and that is enough. He will 
save you if you only cry from your heart. Thank God, you 
can be saved if you will. 

I can imagine when they came to take down the body of 
Christ, and when they came to break the bones of those 
two thieves. I can imagine Him saying to the officer : 
" Hurry up, for I will soon be with My Master." Christ 
went up before him to give him a warm welcome, and that 
thief rejoices that he will soon be in the kingdom. When- 
ever he put his trust in Him he was changed in the 



296 GREAT JOY. 

twinkling of an eye, because he had got salvation. But let 
me say here that Christ drew the dividing line while upon 
that cross. On one side of Him was unbelief, and the 
unbeliever died reviling Him. On the other side was 
belief, and the believer went up to Paradise. He believed 
in a moment and yet there are men who cannot understand 
sudden conversion. There are two classes in Chicago — as 
they were represented by those two thieves — those for and 
those against Him. They must either accept Him or reject 
Him. One of them would not receive salvation, and went 
down to death • the other accepted salvation as a gift and 
went up to His kingdom. I can imagine him now singing 
the sweet songs of Moses and the Lamb. No one sings 
those sweet songs any louder than does that thief. Ask 
that poor thief who when down here, was a reveller, who 
was a blasphemer, and lived at enmity with God, how he 
came into that world of light ? Ask him how he got that 
sceptre in his hand, that crown on his brow ; how he was 
permitted to sing the high hallelujahs of the redeemed, 
and his voice will come back telling you " I took salvation 
as the gift of God." Ah, my friends, there is salvation for 
all who will have it, and damnation for those who won't 
accept the gift. He commanded His disciples to preach 
the gospel as a gift before He left the earth. " Go ye into 
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature ; he 
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that 
believeth not shall be damned." One of those thieves 
believed and was saved, the other rejected Him and was 
damned. What will you do ? Will you believe and be 
saved ? Will you accept this gift of eternal life or trample 
the gift under your feet ? Will you take His offer to-night 
or reject it? May God open your eyes too, and bring you to 
Himself on this the last Sunday in November, one of the 
sweetest months of my life. May this be the Sabbath 
night of your salvation, and it will be an evening full of 
sweetness. 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 



I want to call your attention to Deut. v., 29. tl Oh 
that there were such a heart in them that they would fear Me 
and keep all My commandments always with them, that it 
might be well with them and with their children for- 
ever." And also the sixth chapter and seventh verse, " And 
thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and 
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and 
when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, 
and when thou risest up." I used to think when I was 
superintendent on the North Side, when I was laboring 
among the children and trying to get the parents interested 
to save their children, that if I ever did become a preacher 
I would have but one text and one sermon, and that should 
be addressed to parents, because when we get them inter- 
ested their interest will be apparent in the children. We 
used to say, if we get the lambs in, the old sheep will 
follow, but I didn't find that to be the case. When we got 
the children interested in one Sunday, the parents would 
be sometimes pulling the other way all the week, and 
before Sunday came again the impression that had been 
made would be gone, and I came to the conclusion that, 
unless we could get the parents interested, or could get 
some kind Christian to look after those children, it would 
almost be a sin to bring them to Christ. If there is no one 
to nurse them, to care for them, and just to water the seed, 
why they are liable to be drawn away, and when they grow 
up, to be far more difficult to reach. 1 wish to say to-night 
that I am as strong as ever upon sudden conversion, and 

297 



298 GREAT JOY. 

there are a great many ministers, a great many parents, 
who scoff and laugh when they hear of children who have 
been brought unto Christ at these meetings. Now, in many 
of the churches the sermons go over their heads ; they 
don't do the young any good ; they don't understand the 
preaching, and if they are impressed here we ought not to 
discourage them. My friends, the best thing we can do is 
to bring them early to Christ. These earliest impressions 
never, never leave them, and I do not know why they 
should not grow up in the service of Christ. I contend 
that those who are converted early are the best Christians. 
Take the man who is converted at fifty. He has contin- 
ually to fight against his old habits ; but take a young man 
or a young girl and they get a character to form and a 
whole long life to give to Christ. An old man unconverted 
got up in an inquiry meeting recently, and said he thought 
w r e were very hard-hearted down in the Tabernacle ; we 
went right by when we saw some young person. He thought, 
as he was old, he might be snatched away before these 
young people ; but with us it seemed as if Christ was of 
more importance to the young than the old. I confess 
truly that I have that feeling. If a young man is converted 
he perhaps has a long life of fifty years to devote to Christ, 
but an old man is not worth much. Of course, his soul is 
worth much, but he is not worth much for labor. 

While down at a convention in Illinois an old man got 
up, past seventy years ; he said he remembered but one 
thing about his father, and that one thing followed him all 
through life. He could not remember his death, he had no 
recollection of his funeral, but he recollected his father one 
winter night, taking a little chip, and with his pocket knife 
whittling out a cross, and with the tears in his eyes he held 
up that cross and told how God in His infinite love sent 
His Son down here to redeem us, how He had died on the 
cross for us. The story of the cross followed him through 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 2 



99 



life ; and I tell you if you teach these children truths they 
will follow them through life. We have got so much 
unbelief among us, like those disciples when they rebuked 
the people for bringing the children to Christ, but He 
said, " Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid 
them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." I heard 
of a Sunday school concert at which a little child of eight 
was going to recite. Her mother had taught her, and when 
the night came the little thing was trembling so she could 
hardly speak. She commenced, " Jesus said," and com- 
pletely broke down. Again she tried it, " Jesus said, 
suffer," but she stopped once more. A third attempt was 
made by her, " Suffer little children — and don't anybody 
stop them, for He wants them all to come," and that is the 
truth. There is not a child who has parents in the Taber- 
nacle but He wants, and if you bring them in the arms of 
your faith and ask the Son of God to bless them and train 
them in the knowledge of God, and teach them as you walk 
your way, as you lie down at night, as you rise up in the 
morning, they will be blessed. But I can imagine some 
skeptic in yonder gallery saying, " That's well enough, but 
its all talk." Why I have known children of ministers and 
Christian people who have turned out worse than others." 
I've, heard that all my life, but I tell you that is one of the 
devil's lies. I will admit I've heard of many Christian 
people having bad children, but they are not the worst 
children. That was tested once. A whole territory was 
taken in which fathers and mothers were Christians, and it 
was found that two-thirds of the children were members of 
churches, but they took a portion of country where all the 
fathers and mothers were not Christians, and it was found 
that not one in twelve of the children attended churches. 
That was the proportion. Look at a good man who has a 
bad son. Do you want to know the reason ? In the first 
place children do not inherit grace. Because fathers and 



3 oo GREAT JOY. 

mothers are good that is no reason why their children 
should be good. Children are not born good. Men may- 
talk of natural goodness, but I don't find it. Goodness 
must come down from the Father of Light. To have a 
good nature a man must be born of God. There is another 
reason — a father may be a very good man, but the mother 
may be pulling in another way. She may be ambitious, 
and may want her children to occupy a high worldly posi- 
tion. She has some high ambition and trains the child for 
the world. Again, it may be the reverse — a holy, pious 
mother and a worldly father, and it is pretty hard when 
father and mother do not pull together. Another reason 
is, and you will excuse me the expression, but a great 
many people have got very little sense about bringing up 
children. Now, I've known mothers punish their children 
by making them read the Bible. Do not be guilty of such 
a thing. If you want children not to hate the Bible do 
not punish them by making them read it. It is the most 
attractive book in the world. But that is the way to spoil 
its attractiveness, and make them hate it with a perfect 
hate. There is another reason. A great many people are 
engaged in looking after other people's children and 
neglecting their own. No father or mother has a right to 
do this, whatever may be the position they hold in the 
world. The father may be a statesman or a great business 
man, but he is responsible for his children. If they do 
not look after their children they will have to answer 
for it some day. There will be a blight in their paths, and 
their last days will be very bitter. 

There are a great many reasons which I might bring 
forward if I had time; why good people's children turn 
out bad ; but let me say one word about bringing up these 
children, how to train them in Christian ways. The word 
is very plain: "Teach them diligently." In the street 
cars, as we go about our business night and morning, talk 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 



301 



of Christ and heavenly things. It seems to me as if these 
things were the last things many of us think about, and as 
if Christ was banished from our homes. A great many 
people have a good name as Christians. They talk about 
ministers and Sunday schools, and will come down and 
give a dinner to the bootblacks, and seem to be strong 
patrons of the cause of Christ, but when it comes to talk- 
ing to children personally about Christ, that is another 
thing. The word is very plain, " teach them diligently," 
and if we want them to grow up a blessing to the church 
of God and to the world we must teach them. I can 
imagine some of you saying : " It may be very well for Mr. 
Moody to lay down theories, but there are a great many 
difficulties in the way." I heard of a minister who said he 
had the grandest theory upon the bringing up of children. 
God gave him seven children, and he found that his 
theory was all wrong. They were all differently constitut- 
ed. I will admit that this is one difficulty; but if our 
heart is set upon this one thing — to have our children in 
glory — God will give us all the light we need. He is not 
going to leave us in darkness. If that is not the aim of 
your heart, make it this very night. I would rather, if I 
went to-night, leave my children in the hope of Christ 
than leave them millions of money. It seems to me as if 
we were too ambitious to have them make a name, instead 
of to train them up for the life they are to lead forever. 
And another thing about government. Never teach them 
revenge. If a baby falls down on the floor, don't give it a 
book with which to strike the floor. They have enough of 
revenge in them without being taught it. Then don't 
teach them to lie. You don't like that ; but how many 
parents have told their children to go to the door, when 
they did not want to see the visitor, and say, " Mother is 
not in." That is a lie. Children are very keen to detect. 
They very soon see those lies, and this lays the foundation 



302 GREAT JOY. 

for a good deal of trouble afterward. " Ah," some of you 
say, " I never do this." Well, suppose some person comes 
in that you don't want to see. You give him a welcome, 
and when he goes you entreat him to stay, but the moment 
he is out of the door you say, " What a bore ! " The chil- 
dren wonder at first, but they very soon begin to imitate 
the father and mother. Children are very good imitators. 
A father and mother never ought to do a thing that they 
don't want their children to do. If you don't want them 
to smoke, don't you smoke ; if you don't want them to 
chew, don't you chew; if you don't want them to play 
billiards, don't you play billiards ; if you don't want them 
to drink, don't you drink, because children are grand 
imitators. A lady once told me she was in her pantry on 
one occasion, and she was surprised by the ringing of the 
bell. As she whirled round to see who it was, she broke 
a tumbler. Her little child was standing there, and she 
thought her mother was doing a very correct thing, and 
the moment the lady left the pantry, the child commenced 
to break all the tumblers she could get hold of. You may 
laugh, but children are very good imitators. If you don't 
want them to break the Sabbath day, keep it holy yourself ; 
if you want them to go to church, go to church yourself. 
It is very often by imitation that they utter their first oath, 
that they tell their first lie, and then they grow upon them, 
and when they try to quit the habit, it has grown so strong 
upon them that they cannot do it. " Ah," some say, " we 
do not believe in children being converted. Let them 
grow up to manhood and womanhood, and then talk of 
converting them." They forget that in the meantime their 
characters are formed, and perhaps have commenced to 
enter those dens of infamy, and when they have arrived at 
manhood and womanhood, we find it is too late to alter 
their character. How unfaithful we are. " Teach them 
diligently." How many parents in this vast assembly 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 



303 



know where their sons are. Their sons may be in the 
halls of vice. Where does your son spend his evenings? 
You don't care enough for him to ascertain what kind of 
company he keeps, what kind of books he reads ; don't 
care whether he is reading those miserable, trashy novels 
or not, and getting false ideas of life. You don't know 
till it is too late. Oh, may God wake us up and teach us 
the responsibility devolving upon us in training our chil- 
dren. While in London, an officer in the Indian army, 
hearing of us being over there, said : " Lord, now is the 
time for my son to be saved." He got a furlough and 
left India, and came to London. When he came 
there for that purpose, of course God was not going 
to let him go away without the blessing. How many 
men are interested in their sons who would do as this 
man did. How many men are sufficiently interested in 
them to bring them here. How many parents stand in the 
way of the salvation of their children. I don't know any- 
thing that discouraged me more when I was superintendent 
on the North Side than when, after begging with parents 
to allow their children to come to Sunday school — and 
now few of them came — whenever spring arrived those 
parents would take their children from the school, and 
lead them into those German gardens. And how a great 
many are reaping the consequences. I remember one 
mother who heard that her boy was impressed at our 
meeting. She said her son was a good enough boy, and 
he didn't need to be converted. I pleaded with that mother, 
but all my pleading was of no account. I tried my influence 
with the boy ; but while I was pulling one way she was pull- 
ing the other. Her influence prevailed. Naturally it would. 
Well, to make a long story short, some time after I happened 
to be in the County Jail, and I saw him there. " How did 
you come here ? " I asked ; " does your mother know where 
you are ? " " No, don't tell her ; I came in under an as- 



3 o 4 GREAT JOY. 

sumed name, and I am going to Joliet for four years. Do 
not let my mother know of this," he pleaded ; " she thinks 
I am in the army." I used to call on that mother, but I 
had promised her boy I would not tell her, and for four 
years she mourned over that boy. She thought he had 
died on the battle-field or in a Southern hospital. What a 
blessing he might have been to that mother, if she had 
only helped us to bring him to Christ. But that mother is 
only a specimen of hundreds and thousands of parents in 
Chicago. If we would have more family altars in our 
homes and train them to follow Christ, why the Son of 
God would lead them into "green pastures," and instead 
of having sons who curse the mothers who gave them birth 
they would bless their fathers and mothers. In the Indiana 
Penitentiary I was told of a man who had come there under 
an assumed name. His mother heard where he was. She 
was too poor to ride there, and she footed it. Upon her 
arrival at the prison she at first did not recognize her son in 
his prison suit and short hair, but when she did see who it 
was, that mother threw her arms about that boy and said : 
" I am to blame for this ; if I had only taught you to obey 
God and keep the Sabbath you would not have been here." 
How many mothers, if they were honest, could attribute 
the ruination of their children to the early training. God 
has said if we don't teach them those blessed command- 
ments He will destroy us, and the law of God never 
changes. It does not only apply to those callous men who 
make no profession of religion, but to those who stand 
high in the church if they make the same mistake. Look 
at that high priest Eli. He was a good man and a kind 
one, but one thing he neglected to do — to train his 
children for God. The Lord gave him warning, and at 
last destruction came upon his house. Look at that old 
man 98 years old, with his white hair, like some of the men 
on the platform, sitting in the town of Shiloh waiting to hear 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS 



3°5 



the result of the battle. The people of Israel came into 
the town and took out the ark of God, and when it came 
into the camp a great shout went up to heaven, for they 
had the ark of their God among them. They thought 
they were going to succeed, but they had disobeyed God. 
When the battle came on they fought manfully, but no less 
than 30,000 of the Israelites fell by the swords of their 
enemies, and a messenger came running from the field 
through the streets of Shiloh to where Eli was, crying, 
" Israel is defeated, the ark is taken, and Hophni and 
Phineas have been slain in battle," and where the old 
priest, when he heard it, fell backward by the side of the 
gate, and his neck broke and he died. Oh, what a sad 
ending to that man, and when his daughter-in-law heard 
the news there was another death in that family recorded. 
In that house destruction was complete. My friends, God 
is true, and if we do not obey Him in this respect He will 
punish us. It is only a question of time. Look at King 
David. See him waiting for the tidings of the battle. He 
had been driven from his throne by his own son, whom he 
loved, but when the news came that he was slain, see how 
he cried, " Oh, my son Absalom, would to God I had died 
for thee." It was worse than death to him, but God had 
to punish him because he did not train his son to love the 
Lord. My friends, if He punished Eli and David He will 
punish you and me. May God forgive us for the past, 
and may we commence a new record to-night. My friends, 
if you have not a family altar erect one to-night. Let us 
labor that our children may be brought to glory. Don't 
say children are too young. Mothers and fathers, if you 
hear your children have been impressed with religion, 
don't stand in the way of their conversion, but encourage 
them all you can. 

While I was attending a meeting in a certain city some 
time ago, a lady came to me and said : " I want you to go 

ao 



306 . GREAT JOY. 

home with me ; I have something to say to you." When 
we reached her home, there were some friends there. After 
they had retired, she put her arms on the table, and tears 
began to come into her eyes, but with an effort she re- 
pressed her emotion. After a struggle she went on to say 
that she was going to tell me something which she had 
never told any other living person. I should not tell it 
now, but she has gone to another world. She said she 
had a son in Chicago, and she was very anxious about 
him. When he was young he got interested in religion at 
the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association. He 
used to go out in the street and circulate tracts. He was 
her only son, and she was very ambitious he should make 
a name in the world, and wanted to get him into the very 
highest circles. Oh what a mistake people make about 
these highest circles. Society is false ; it is a sham. She 
was deceived like a good many more votaries of fashion 
and hunters after wealth at the present time. She thought 
it was beneath her son to go down and associate with 
those young men who hadn't much money. She tried to 
get him away from them, but they had more influence than 
she had, and, finally, to break his whole association, she 
packed him off to a boarding-school. He went soon to 
Yale College, and she supposed he got into one of those 
miserable secret societies there that have ruined so many 
young men, and the next thing she heard was that the boy 
had gone astray. She began to write letters urging him 
to come into the kingdom of God, but she heard that he 
tore the letters up without reading them. She went to 
him to try and regain whatever influence she possessed 
over him, but her efforts were useless, and she came home 
with a broken heart. He left New Haven, and for two 
years they heard nothing of him. At last they heard 
he was in Chicago, and his father found him and gave him 
thirty thousand dollars to start in business. They thought 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 



307 



it would change him, but it didn't. They asked me when 
I went back to Chicago to try and use my influence with 
him. I got a friend to invite him to his house one night, 
where I intended to meet him, but he heard I was to be 
there and did not come near. Like a good many other 
young men, who seem to be afraid of me, I tried many 
times to reach him, but could not. While I was travelling 
one day on the New Haven Railroad, I bought a New 
York paper, and in it I saw a dispatch saying he had been 
drowned in Lake Michigan. His father came on to find 
his body, and, after considerable searching, he discovered it. 
All the clothes, and his body were covered with sand. The 
body was taken home to that broken-hearted mother. She 
said, " If I thought he was in Heaven I would have peace." 
Her disobedience of God's law came back upon her. So, 
my friends, if you have a boy impressed with the gospel, 
help him to come to Christ. Bring him in the arms of 
your faith, and he will unite you closer to Him. Let us 
have faith in Him, and let us pray day and night that our 
children may be born of the Spirit. Let us pray. 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 



I want to call your attention to-night to a text which 
you will find in the eighteenth chapter of First Kings, 
twenty-first verse : " And Elijah came unto all the people 
and said : " How long halt ye between two opinions ? if the 
Lord be God follow Him, but if Baal then follow him. 
And the people answered him not a word." We find in 
this portion of the Word of God that Elijah was calling 
the people of Israel back, or he was calling them to a 
decision as to whether they were for God or Baal, and a 
great many were wavering, just halting between two opin- 
ions, like the people of Chicago at the present time. 
During the last eight weeks a great deal has been said 
upon the subject of religion. Men have talked about it 
all over the city. A great many are talking, a great many 
are taking their stand for, and a great many against Him. 
Now, what will you do to-night? I will just divide this 
audience into two portions — one against and one for Him. 
It seems to me a practical question to ask an audience 
like this : " How long halt ye between two opinions ? If 
the Lord be God follow Him, but if Baal, then follow him." 
A man who is undecided about any question of any magni- 
tude never has any comfort ; never has any peace. Not 
only that, but we don't like a man who cannot decide upon 
a question. I like men of decision, and firmly believe 
that more men are lost by indecision than by anything else. 
It is a question whether I am not talking to many men 
to-night who intend some day to settle this question. Prob- 
308 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN 309 

ably every one here intends to make heaven his home ; 
but Satan is trying to get you to put off the settlement of 
the question till it will be too late. If he can only get 
men to put off till the to-morrow, which never comes, he 
has accomplished all he wants. How many in this audi- 
ence have promised some friend years ago that they would 
settle this question. May be you said you would do it 
when you came of age. That time has gone with some of 
you, and it has not been settled yet. Some have reached 
thirty, some forty, and others have reached fifty years ; 
their eyes are growing dim, and they are hastening toward 
eternity, and this is not settled with them yet. Some of 
you have promised dying brothers that you would meet 
them in that world ; some have promised dying wives that 
you would see them in that land of light ; and again, others 
have given their word to dying children that you would 
meet them in heaven. Years have rolled away, and still 
you have not decided. You have kept putting it off week 
by week and year by year. My friends, why not decide 
to-night ? " How long halt ye between two opinions ? " 
If the Lord be God serve Him ; if not, turn your back 
upon Him. It seems to me a question every man can 
settle if he will. You like those grand old characters in 
the Bible who have made a decisive stand. Look" at 
Moses ! The turning point in his life was when he decided 
to give up the gilded court of Pharaoh and cast his lot 
with God's people. You will find that every man who has 
left a record in the Bible have been men of decision. 
What made Daniel so great ? It was because he was a 
man of decision. What saved the prodigal ? It was not 
tliat he got into his father's arms, it was not his coming 
home. The turning point was when he decided the ques- 
tion : " I will arise and go to my father." It was the 
decision of the young man that saved him. Many a man 
has been lost because of indecision. Look at Felix, look 



3 io GREAT JOY. 

at Agrippa. Felix said, " Go thy way for this time ; when 
I have a convenient season I will call for thee." See 
what Agrippa said : " Almost thou persuadest me to be 
a Christian." Look at Pilate — all lost ; lost because of 
his indecision. His mind was thoroughly convinced 
that Jesus was the true Christ ; he said, " I find no fault in 
Him," but he hadn't the courage to take his standfor Him. 
Thousands have gone down to the caverns of death for 
want of courage. My friends, let us look this question in 
the face. If there is anything at all in the religion of 
Christ, give everything for it. If there is nothing in it — if 
it is a myth, if our mothers who have prayed over us have 
been deceived, if the praying people of the last 1,800 years 
have been deluded, let us find it out. The quicker the 
better. If there is nothing in the religion of Christ let us 
throw it over, and eat, drink, and be merry, for time will 
soon be gone. If there is no devil to deceive us, no hell 
to receive us; if Christianity" is a sham, let us come out 
like men and say so. I hope to live to see the time when 
there will only be two classes in this world — Christians and 
infidels — those who take their stand bravely for Him, 
and those who take their stand against Him. This 
idea of men standing still and saying, " Well, I don't know, 
but I think there must be something in it," is absurd. If 
there is anything in it there is everything in it. If the 
Bible of our mothers is not true, let us burn it. Is there 
one in this audience willing to say and do this ? If it is a 
myth, why spend so much mouey in publishing it ? Why 
send out millions of Bibles to the nations of the earth ? 
"Let us destroy it if it is false, and all those institutions 
giving the gospel to the world. What is the use of all this 
waste of money? Are we mad, are we lunatics who have 
been deluded ? Let us burn the book and send up a shout 
over its ashes : " There is no God ; There is no hell ; 
there is no heaven ; there is no hereafter. When men 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN 3II 

die, they die like dogs in the street ! " But my friends, if 
it is true — if heaven, if a hereafter in the Bible is true, let 
us come out boldly, like men, for Christ. Let us take our 
stand, and not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
Why, it seems to me a question that ought to be settled in 
this nineteenth century easy enough, whether you are for 
or against Him or not. Why, if Baal be God, follow him ; 
but if the Lord be God follow Him. If there is no truth 
in the religion of Jesus Christ, you may as well tear down 
all your churches, destroy your hospitals, your blind 
asylums. It's a waste of money to build them. Baalites 
don't build blind asylums, don't build hospitals, orphan 
asylums. If there hadn't been any Christians in the world, 
there would have been no charitable institutions. If it 
hadn't been for Christianity you would have had no praying 
mothers. Is it true that their prayers have exercised a 
pernicious influence ? Is it true that a boy who had a pray- 
ing father and mother, or a good teacher, is no better off 
than a boy who has been brought up amid blasphemy and 
infamy ? Is it true ? It must be either one way or the 
other. Did bad men write that Bible ? Certainly not, or 
they wouldn't have consigned themselves to eternal perdi- 
tion. The very fact that the Bible has lived and grown 
during these 1,800 years is a strong proof that it came from 
God. Men have tried to put it out of the world ; they have 
tried to burn it out of the world, but they have failed. It 
has come down to us — down these 1,800 years amid perse- 
cution, and now we are in a land where it is open to all, 
and no man need be without one. What put it into the 
minds of those men to give money liberally to print and 
circulate this book ? Bad men wouldn't do this. This is 
a question that, it seems to me, couldn't be decided to- 
night. If it is not good, then take your stand. If the Lord 
be God, follow Him, but if God be Baal, then follow Him. 
Some one asked Alexander how he conquered the world, 



312 GREATJOY. 

and he replied that he conquered it by not delaying. If 
you want to conquer the devil you must not delay — accept 
eternal life as a gift to-night. 

Let us take the surroundings of this text. We are told 
that Elijah stood before Ahab and told him, because of the 
evil deeds of Israel and the king, there would no rain come 
upon the land for three years and a half. After that Elijah 
went to the brook Cherith, where he was fed by the ravens, 
after which he went to Zarephath, and there dwelt with a 
poor widow for months and months. Three years and a 
half rolled away, and not one drop of rain or dew had come 
from heaven. Probably when Elijah told the King there 
would be no rain he laughed at him. The idea that he 
should have the key of heaven ! He scouted the very idea 
at first. But after a little it became a very serious matter. 
The brooks began to dry up, the cattle could not get water, 
the crops failed the first year, the next year they were worse, 
the third year they were even a worse failure, and the 
people began to flee out of his kingdom to get food, and 
yet they did not call upon Elijah's God. They had 450 
prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the groves, and yet 
all their prayers did not bring rain. Why did they ask 
God for rain ? Baal was not an answerer of prayer. The 
devil never answers prayer. If prayer has ever been 
answered, it has been answered by the God of our fathers, 
by the God of our mothers. After Elijah had been gone 
three and a half years he returns and meets Obadiah the 
governor of the king's house, and Ahab says : " You go 
down that way, and I'll go down this way, and see if we 
can't discover water." They hadn't been separated long 
when Obadiah meets Elijah and asks him to come to the 
king. The prophet tells him to go and say to Ahab, 
" Elijah is here. But Obadiah don't want to leave him. 
If I lose sight of you this time, when the king knows you 
have stepped through my lands it may cost me my life. 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN 



3^3 



Don't you know I've been a servant of the true God all the 
time, and I've had a hundred of the prophets of the Lord 
in a cave. If you don't come I will lose my life." Elijah 
tells him to go and bring Ahab, and instead of Elijah 
going to Ahab,. Ahab comes to him. Whenever the 
king comes he says : " Art thou he that troubleth 
Israel ? " That is the way with men. They bring down the 
wrath of God upon themselves, and then blame God's 
people. A great many people are blaming God for these 
hard times. Look on the millions and millions of money 
spent for whiskey. Why, it is about time for famine to 
strike the land. If men had millions of money, it wouldn't 
be long before all the manhood would be struck out of 
them. Now, the people of Israel had gone over to Baal, 
they had forgotten the God that brought them out of Egypt 
— the God of Jacob and Abraham and of their fathers. 
" Now," says Elijah, " let's have this settled. Let some 
of your people make an offering to their God on Mount 
Carmel, and I will make an offering to my God, and the 
God that answers by fire will be the God." The king 
agrees, and the day arrives. You can see a great stir 
among the people that day. They are moving up to Mount 
Carmel. By and by Ahab comes up in his royal carriage, 
and those four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four 
hundred prophets of the groves made a great impression. 
Dressed in priestly robes, they moved solemnly up that 
mountain. The king has swept along in his chariot, and, 
perhaps, passed by the poor priest Elijah, who comes slowly 
up, leaning upon his staff, his long white hair streaming 
about his shoulders. People don't believe in sensations. 
That was one of the greatest sensations of their age. What 
is going to happen ? No doubt the whole nation had been 
talking about this Elijah, and when he came to that moun- 
tain, the crowd looked upon him as the man who held the 
key of heaven. When he came up he addressed the chil- 



314 GREAT JOY. 

dre'n of Israel. Perhaps there were hundreds of thousands. 
" How long halt ye between two opinions ? If the Lord 
be God follow him, but if he be Baal then follow him ; and 
the people answered not a word." Their eight hundred and 
fifty prophets had made a great impression upon them, and 
the king was afraid too. These people are just like a great 
many people now. They are afraid to go into the inquiry- 
room for what people will say. If they do go in they get 
behind a post, so that they can't be seen. They are afraid 
the people in the store will find it out, and make fun of 
them. Moral courage is wanted by them, as it was wanted 
by those people. How many among us have not the moral 
courage to come out for the God of their mothers ! They 
know these black-hearted hypocrites around them are not 
to be believed. They know these men who scoff at their 
religion are not their friends, while their mothers will do 
everything for them. The truest friends we can have are 
those who believe in Christ. " And the people answered 
not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I 
only, remain a prophet of the Lord ; but Baal's" prophets 
are four hundred and fifty men. Let them, therefore, give 
us two bullocks ; and let them choose one bullock for. 
themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and 
put no fire under ; and I will dress the other bullock, 
and lay it on wood, and put no fire under it. And call ye 
on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of 
the Lord, and the God that answereth by fire let him be 
God. And all the people answered and said, ' It is well 
spoken.' " " Yes, sir, that's right. We'll stand by that de- 
cision." They built an altar, and laid their bullock on it, 
and began to cry to Baal, " O Baal ! O Baal ! Baal ! Baal !" 
No answer. They cry louder and louder, but no answer 
comes. They pray from morning till noon, but not a sound. 
Elijah says: "Louder; you must pray louder. He must 
be on a journey ; he must be asleep. He must be on a 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN 315 

journey or asleep." They cry louder and louder. Some 
people say it don't matter what a man believes, so long as 
he is earnest. These men were terribly in earnest. No 
Methodists shout as they did. They cry as loud as their 
voices will let them, but no answer. They take their knives 
and cut themselves in their earnestness. Look at those 
four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred 
prophets of the grove, all covered with blood, as they cry 
out in their agony. They have no God. Young man, 
who is your master ? Whom do you serve ? If you are 
serving Baal, I tell you if ever you get into trouble he will 
not answer you. No answer came. Three o'clock came, 
the hour for the evening sacrifice, and Elijah prepared his 
altar. He would have nothing to do with the altar of 
Baal. He merely took twelve stones, representing the 
twelve tribes of Israel, and built his altar, and laid his bul- 
lock on. No . doubt some skeptic said he had some fire 
concealed in his garment, for he digs a trench all around 
it to hold water. Then he tells them to bring four barrels 
of water, and empties them over his sacrifice. Four more 
barrels are brought and thrown on the bullock, making 
eight, and then four barrels more are added, making twelve 
in all. Then, there lies that bullock, dripping with water, 
and Elijah comes forward. Every ear and eye is open. 
Those bleeding Baalites look at him. What is going to be 
the end of it ? He comes forward, calm as a summer 
evening. He prays to the God of Isaac and Abraham — 
when, behold, look ! look ! down it comes — fire from the 
very throne of God, and consumed the wood and the stones 
and the sacrifice, and the people cry : " The Lord is the 
God ! " The question is decided. The God that answer- 
eth by fire is the God of man. My friends, who is your 
God now ? The God who answers prayer ? or have you 
no God ? 

I can imagine some of you saying, " If I had been on 



3 i6 GREAT JOY. 

Mount Carmel and seen that I would have believed it." 
But I will tell you of a mount on which occurred another 
scene. That was a wonderful scene, but it does not 
compare with the scene on Calvary. Look there ! God's 
own beloved Son hanging between two thieves and crying, 
" Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 
Talk about wonderful things. This has been the wonder 
of ages. A man once gave me a book of wonderful things. 
I saw a good many wonders in it, but I did not see 
anything so wonderful in it as the story of the cross. My 
friends, see his expiring look. See what happened. The 
very rocks were rent, the walls of the temple were rent, and 
all nature owned its God. The sun veiled its face and 
darkness fell over the earth when the Son of Man expired 
on Mount Calvary. Where can you find a more wonderful 
sight than this ? Those Israelites lived on the other side 
of the cross ; we live on this side of it. If a man wants 
proof of His gospel look around this assembly. See men 
who thirty days ago were slaves, bound hand and foot to 
some hellish passion which was drawing them to hell. 
What a transformation there is. All things seem changed 
to them. They have got a new nature. " Is not this the 
power of God?" said a yoimg convert to me to-day: "It 
seems as if we were living in the days of miracles, and the 
Son of God is coming down and giving men complete 
victory over lusts and passions." That is what the Son of 
God does for men, and yet, with all the proofs before their 
eyes, men are undecided. 

What it is that keeps you from your decision ? I wish I 
had time to tell you many of the reasons. Hundreds of 
thousands of men are thoroughly convinced, but they lack 
moral courage to come out and confess their sins. Others 
are being led captive by some sin. They have got some 
darling sin, and as long as they hold on to it there is no 
hope. A man the other day said he would like to become 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN 317 

a Christian, but he had a bet upon the election, and he 
wanted that settled first. He did not think that he might 
die before that was decided. Eternity is drawing on. 
Suppose we die without God, without hope, without 
everlasting life, it seems to me it would have been better 
never to have been born. My friends, I ask you to-night, 
why not come out like men ? Say, " Cost what it will, I will 
accept Jesus to-night." Now, have moral courage. Come. 
How many of you are thoroughly convinced in your minds 
that you ought to be Christians to-night ? Now just ask 
yourselves the question : " What hinders me, what stands 
in my way." I can imagine some of you looking behind, 
you to see how the one sitting there looks. If he seems 
serious, you look serious ; if he laughs you will laugh, and 
come to the conclusion, that you'll not accept Him to-night. 
You think of your companions, and you say you cannot 
stand their jeers. Is not that so ? Come. Trample the 
world under your feet and take the Lord to-night, cost 
what it will. Say, " By the grace of God I will serve Him 
from this hour." Turn your backs upon hell, and set your 
faces toward heaven, and it will be the best night of your 
lives. Have you ever seen a man who accepted Christ 
regret it ? You cannot find a man who has changed masters 
and gone over to Christ who has regretted it. This is one 
of the strongest proofs of Christianity. Those who have 
never followed Him only regret it. I have seen hundreds 
dying when in the army and when a missionary, and I 
never saw a man who died conscious but who regretted that 
he had not lived a Christian life. My friends, if you 
accept Him to-night it will be the best hour of your life. 
Let this night be the best night of your lives. Let me 
bring this to your mind, if you are lost it will be because 
you do not decide. " How long halt ye between two 
opinions ; If the Lord be God, follow Him, but, if Baal, 



3 i8 GREAT JOY. 

then follow him." How many men in this assembly want 
to be on the Lord's side ? Those who want to take their 
stand on the side of the true God rise. 

Upon this request by Mr. Moody nearly 2,000 men 
instantly arose. 



PRAISE. 



I want to take for my subject to-night " Praise." We 
spoke at the noon-day meeting upon the subject of "Thanks- 
giving." Now, praise is a step in advance of thanksgiv- 
ing. If you receive blessings from a man you may thank 
him, yet you may not praise him. Now, praise is not only 
speaking to the Lord on our own account, but it is praising 
Him for what He has done for others. We have had a 
great many prayers going up in this Tabernacle during 
the past eight weeks for others, and hundreds — I may say 
thousands — of them have been answered. We should give 
praise for this. We have in our churches a great deal of 
prayer, but I think it would be a good thing if we had a 
praise meeting occasionally. If we could only get people 
to praise God for what He has done it would be a good 
deal better than asking Him continually for something. 
We like to have our children ask us for things, but if they 
keep on asking without ever giving thanks we become dis- 
couraged. Bear this in mind : God expects us to praise Him 
for what He has done, and if our heart is full of gratitude, 
and we will praise the Lord, He will do a great deal more 
for us. And I want to say here a praise church is what the 
Lord wants now. A cold church — a church that is full of 
formalism — will never be full of praise ; but a church that 
is full of joy, full of gladness, is praising God all the time. 
" Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold 
me with Thy free spirit, then I will teach transgressors 
Thy ways." It seems to me that if we had that text all 
over Christendom at the present time, the ministers hold- 



3 20 GREAT JOY. 

ing it up to the people till the church is filled with peace, 
till it is filled with rest, till it is filled with gladness, with 
promise — it seems to me that we would then see a revival 
as lasting as eternity itself. Now,- as I said one night here 
before, the world is after the best thing. If a man wants 
to buy a horse, he goes where he can get the best horse 
for his money. If a woman wants to get a dress she'll 
hunt till she gets the very best she can. Why, I have 
heard of a woman going for half a day from store to store 
to get the best piece of ribbon she could. It's a universal 
law — the world wants to get the very best thing it can. 
Now, if we can show the world that the religion of Jesus 
Christ is the best thing in it, the world will take it ; but if 
we are despondent or cast down, look gloomy, are not full 
of praise, if we are not full of joy, the world will not want 
it. We will only drive men out of the kingdom of God. If 
we have a praise church we will have people converted. I 
don't care where it is, what part of the world it's in ; if we 
have a praise church we'll have successful Christianity. 

A young man went down to a church in the East, the 
pastor of which had become an old man. The people got 
asleep. The new man came and tried to rouse them, but 
it was no use. He preached and preached, and tried to 
get them aroused and go into the prayer meetings, but he 
could not. One night he said : " To-night we'll have no 
prayer-meeting." They wondered what it meant ; the idea 
that this young minister should do away with this prayer- 
meeting which they had had for fifty years. They were 
astonished. " But," said he, " we will have a praise meet- 
ing." At the close of the meeting one elder came to 
another one : " What's he going to give up the prayer 
meeting for ? Has he consulted you about it ? " " No." 
" Well," replied the former, "that's a very serious matter ; 
what is the meaning of a praise meeting ? " They had 
been going along without any praise meeting, and they did 



PRAISE. 321 

not know what a praise meeting meant. They went to ask 
him, but he wouldn't tell them, but said to wait till Friday- 
night, and then they would see. They began to talk about 
it, and out of curiosity a great many came to see what it 
was. The young minister read some of those good old 
psalms. " Now," said he " if you can think of anything in 
your past life that you have received from God, praise God 
for it. You have been asking God j:or everything, and it 
chills the church through. Now if you can think of any 
benefits you have received, praise God for them." They 
began to think, and they found they had a good many 
things to praise God for. One man got up and praised 
God for a praying mother, who had led him to Christ. 
Another man got up and praised God for the Bible. Another 
praised God for this and that, and the result was that when 
the meeting was over, instead of getting up and walking 
out they stopped, and shook hands with one another and 
spoke to one another, and said, " I believe we are going 
to have a revival." My friends, if we don't thank God for 
what He has done for us, and be full of joy and gladness, 
the world will not come to Christ. Would to God that we 
had a praise church all over Christendom. Let Christ's 
name be in the churches. Let them praise Him for what 
He has done, and the world will come. Let the world 
know that this is the name in which we trust, that this is 
the name we speak well of ; and when His disciples begin 
to do this, then the world will realize the goodness of His 
gospel. Thank God, the people of Chicago begin to talk 
about Christ ; and if we can get men to talk about Christ 
in the steam cars, in the places of business, in the horse 
cars, in the streets — if we can get them to talk about Christ 
and His loveliness, it won't be long before thousands are 
converted in a day. May God bewaken up the Christians 
to praise Him for what He has done. Did you ever stop 
to think that the heart of man is the only thing that does 



322 GREAT JOY. 

not praise the Lord. The heavens declare His glory j the 
sun praises Him ; the moon and stars praise Him. As the 
rain falls from heaven it praises God ; all nature praises 
God ; the very dumb creatures give Him praise, and it is 
only the heart of man that won't praise Him. Oh, how- 
deceitful is the heart of man. He who gets the most tem- 
poral blessings is the man that praises God least. A man 
may be thankful for those blessings, yet he does not praise 
Him. In fact, I don't believe that any man can praise 
God till he is born of God. You may be thankful for His 
blessings, but praising Him is another thing ; praise is the 
occupation of heaven. Those people who do not praise 
God here, I don't know what they will do when they get into 
heaven ; they will be strangely out of place there, because 
that is the occupation of heaven. The redeemed praise 
Him all the time. There was a little boy converted, and he 
was full of praise. When God converts man or boy His 
heart is full of joy — can't help praising. His father was a 
professed Christian. The boy wondered why he didn't 
talk about Christ, and didn't go down to the special meet- 
ings. One day, as the father was reading the papers, the 
boy came to him and put his hand on his shoulder and 
said : " Why don't you praise God ? Why don't you sing 
about Christ ? Why don't you go down to these meetings 
that are being held ? " The father opened his eyes, and 
looked at him and said, gruffly : " I am not carried away 
with any of those doctrines, I am established." A few 
days after they were out getting a load of wood. They put 
it on the cart. The father and the boy got on top of the 
load and tried to get the horse to go. They used the 
whip, but the horse wouldn't move. They got off and 
tried to roll the wagon along, but they could neither move 
wagon or horse. " I wonder what's the matter ? " said the 
father, " He's established," replied the boy. You may 
laugh at that, but this is the way with a good many 



PRAISE. 323 

Christians. The reason is that they are not born of God, 
or else they have got so far away that they don't exactly 
know where they are. Now, if we are really born of God, 
if our heart is really filled with the spirit of God, we can- 
not help praising Him. I pity the Christian that has no 
praise in his heart. You are living a life of formalism — 
you are living on doctrines. You haven't got Christ in 
your soul if you don't praise Him. Now, that ought to be 
the text. Ask yourself have you praised God this peace- 
ful day of thanksgiving. You say, " Oh, yes, I've thanked 
Him." But have you spoken well of Christ ? Have you 
spoken well of what He has done ? Have you sung, 
" Hallelujah ! hallelujah ! " for these six months or a year, 
for this is what they sing in Heaven. If a man is born of 
God he can't help praising God. Fill this building with 
young converts and see how they will sing, " Oh ! happy 
day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away." They 
cannot hear such songs without praising God. The first 
impulse of a young convert is to praise, and if he don't 
feel like praising the God who saved him, it is a true sign 
that he hasn't been converted by the grace of God ; he has 
been born to some creed or profession, some man or some 
church, and not to the loving Son of God, because when 
Christ comes into the heart He brings joy. Now, take a 
servant of the devil, he don't praise. Fill this building 
full of unregenerated men, and try to get them to sing 
praises. You can't do it ; their mouths are sealed ; there 
is no praise in their heart. But you get this building filled 
with men with the Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts, they 
cannot help praising Him. How can a man, whose mas- 
ter is the devil, praise him ? Have you ever heard a man 
rejoice in his service ? I never heard one. 

Now a great many of you say, "It is all very well for 
him to stand up there and talk about praise. If I was in a 
comfortable condition, good health, and everything I 



324 GREAT JOY. 

wanted, like a good many others I see, I would praise 
God.'' It is circumstances with a good many, but I have 
found people who were poor in this world's goods, in bad 
health, and yet continually praising God. I can take you 
to a poor burdened one, who has not been off her bed for 
ten years, and yet she praises Him more than hundreds of 
thousands of Christians. Her chamber seems to be just 
the ante-room of heaven. It seems as if that woman had 
just all the secrets of heaven. Her soul is full of the love 
of God, full of gladness, and she is poor. Like Elijah at 
the brook of Cherith, she is just fed by the Almighty ; 
God provides for all her wants. Any man who knows 
God can trust Him and praise Him. He knows that the 
word of God is true, for he knows that He will care for 
him. He who cares for the lilies of the field, He, without 
whose knowledge not a sparrow can fall to the ground, - He 
who knows every hair of our heads. Any man who knows 
this, cannot he rejoice? Is there anyone here, who, 
although he is poor, can find no reason to praise God? 
Some of those Christians who are so poor, but who have 
the love of God, would not give up their place for that of 
princes. Now my experience is that a man who lives 
nearest to God praises Him most, whether he is rich or 
poor. The nearer he gets to heaven, the more he praises 
Him. The man who is furthest from God praises Him 
least. Now, if -there is any Christian here who cannot 
praise God, there is something between him and God, and 
take my advice and have it removed before you go to bed 
to-night. What the world wants is joyful Christianity, and 
if we have not that, we are not going to see a saved world. 
A backslider cannot see God. Fill this building with 
backsliders and see if they will sing praises. That prod- 
igal off there in that foreign land would sing strangely : 
"Rock of ages, cleft for me." Men astray from God 
cannot praise. Do you think that Peter, when he had 



PRAISE. 325 

denied Christ, could sing a song of praise to Him ? The 
moment a man turns his back on God there is no praise. 
I think that is the reason there are so many quartet choirs 
in the churches. The people cannot sing themselves, and 
they have to hire people to sing for them, give them $4,000 
or $5,000 per year, to sing the songs of praises. Look at 
a church filled with the children of God. The moment a 
minister gives out the song, their hearts burst with praise ; 
they don't want anybody to sing for them. If they can't 
sing with their mouths, songs will bubble out of their 
hearts, but when a man is backslidden he wants artistic 
sounds, wants fine music to touch his ears, don't want it to 
affect his heart. Now, Israel could not sing there in 
Egypt when they were making bricks with straw ; they 
could not sing with the crack of the slave-driver's whip in 
their ears, but when they got through the Red Sea, they 
struck up the song of redemption, and when a man is 
redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ he cannot 
help praising God. Do you know, I believe the devil is 
very wise in this. He don't want a singing church, he 
don't want a praise church. If we have a praise church, a 
singing church, he knows there will be a good many join- 
ing us. He knows that is the native air of heaven, and 
the moment a child is born in heaven he catches the en- 
thusiasm. I am told that once during a campaign the 
general of an army forbade the playing of the soldiers' 
native airs, because it made them so homesick and des- 
pondent that they could not fight. So when we hear the 
songs of Zion we are weaned from this world and want to 
go home. We feel that we are pilgrims and strangers here 
and we have a better world yonder. 

Now, how is it that the church does not praise God 
more ? I tell you I think it is very plain. The trouble is 
we have got settled down 'and gone to sleep. I never 
heard of a bird that sung in its nest, and I don't believe 



326 GREAT JOY. 

that any man ever did, and when a church gets settled 
down it goes to sleep. It is when the bird is on the wing 
that it sings ; and so it is when the church is up, it 
sings songs of praise. And it can sing in the dark; 
a nightingale can sing in the dark. Paul and Silas in the 
darkness of that Philippian jail sung songs of praise. 
When they put them into that jail Almighty God was with 
them. You know when Joseph went down to Egypt, how 
God was with him. When they put him in prison they 
had to lock God Almighty up with him, and Joseph sung 
songs of praise. But, my friends, if we are down in 
Egypt and have turned our backs on God, and been taken 
captive, we are dumb. It is only when we have been true 
to God that we can sing in the darkness. Now I am told 
that an English lark never sings when coming down ; only 
when mounting up. That may be true or not, but when a 
church is coming down, it is not a praise church. When 
mounting up, and it knows it is coming nearer and nearer 
to God, it is full of praise. It cannot help it. When the 
lark is mounting up, up, up, when it is nearly out of sight 
so that you can scarcely see it, it sings sweetest. And so 
when the Christian is rising up near to Christ, so that you 
cannot see him, he gives out the sweetest notes of praise 
from his heart. 

Now, I can imagine some of you saying. " I have got a 
good many things going against me : I've got a good many 
reasons for not praising God. I find there is no reason in 
the world why you should not praise God. If we have 
troubles, if we have sorrows or afflictions, we have brought 
them upon ourselves. They are only to wean us to God. 
Every good gift that we have had from the cradle up has 
come from God. If a man just stops to think what he has 
to praise God for, he will find there is enough to keep him 
singing praises for a week. As the flakes of snow come 
down from the heavens He showers His blessings upon us, 



PRAISE. 327 

and if we praise Him for them He will bless us more 
abundantly. Now, there are people always praising. If 
you are sick it is like good medicine to see them. Then 
there are other people always looking on the dark side. 
There was a man converted here some years ago, and he 
was just full of praise. He was living in the light all the 
time. We might be in the darkness, but he was always in 
the light. , He used to preface everything he said in the 
meeting with "'praise God." One night he came to the 
meeting with his finger all bound up. He had cut it, and 
cut it pretty bad, too. Well, I wondered how he would 
praise God for this ; but he got up and said: " I have cut 
my finger, but, praise God, I didn't cut it off." And 
so, if things go against 'you, just think they might be 
a good deal worse. A soldier who came from the war 
always used to say he could tell when a Christian address- 
ed a soldier. One man would say, " You lost your leg. 
Where did you lose it? " " In the army." " What a pity 
you ever went into the war," he would reply. " I feel sorry 
for you." Another would come along. " You've lost an 
arm ; have you been in the army ? " " Yes." " Well, that 
is a pity ; but, bless God, you didn't lose the other arm." 
There was a man on the North Side, and I never came out 
of his house without praising God. He was deaf, he was 
dumb, blind, and had the lockjaw. He had a hole in 
his tooth, and all the food he took was put through that 
hole. My friend, do you ever thank God for your senses ? 
Do you ever thank God for your eyes, by which you can 
read His Word ? Think of the three millions of people in 
this world who haven't any sight at all. Hundreds of thou- 
sands of them never saw the mother that gave them birth ; 
never saw their own offspring ; never saw nature in all its 
glory ; never saw that beautiful sun and all the stars. Do 
you ever praise God for the ears by which you can hear 
the voice of man, by which you hear the gospel preached, 



328 GREAT JOY. 

by which you hear the songs of Zion ? Did you ever praise 
Him for your hearing and for your reason ? Go down to 
yonder madhouse. I never come out of it without feeling 
full of praise to God. There you will find fathers and 
mothers and children without the light of reason. Now, 
my friends, let us praise God we have a home in this gos- 
pel land. Let us praise God for this blessed Bible. Let 
us praise God for the gift of His only Son. Let us praise 
Him that He gave up that Son freely for u§ all. Let us 
praise Him to-night for the love of His Son, and let us go 
out of this building with our hearts full of joy. 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE. 



You will find my text to-night in one short word, 
" Tekel," meaning : "Thou art weighed in the balance and 
art found wanting." In the fifth chapter of Daniel we read 
the history of the King Belshazzar. It is very short. Only 
one chapter tells us all we know about him. One short 
sight of his career is all we see. He just seems to burst 
upon the stage and then disappears. We are told that he 
gave a great feast, and at this feast he had 1,000 of his 
lords, and they were drinking and praising the gods of sil- 
ver, of gold, of brass, of iron, and of wood, out of the ves- 
sels which had been brought from the temple at Jerusalem. 
As they were drinking out of these vessels of gold and sil- 
ver from the house of God, — I don't know but what it was 
at the midnight hour, all at once came forth the fingers of 
a man's hand and began to write upon the wall of the hall. 
The king turns deathly pale, his knees shake together, and 
he trembles from head to foot. Perhaps if some one had 
told him the time was coming when he would be put into 
the balance and weighed he would have laughed at him. 
But he knows the vital hour has come, and that hand has 
written his doom in the words " Mene, mene, tekel, uphar- 
sin." He calls the wise men of his kingdom, and the man 
who can interpret this will be made the third ruler of his 
kingdom, and be clothed in scarlet, and have a chain about 
his neck. One after another tried, but no uncircumcised 
eye could make it out. He was greatly troubled. At last 
one was spoken of who had been able to interpret the 
dream of his father Nebuchadnezzar. He was told if he 



330 GREATJOY. 

would send for Daniel he might interpret the writing. And 
now the prophet came in and looked upon the handwrit- 
ing, and told him how his father had gone against God, 
and how he, Belshazzar, had gone against the Lord of 
Heaven, and how his reign was finished. And this was 
the writing: " Mene : God hath numbered thy kingdom 
and finished it ; tekel : Thou art weighed in the balance, 
and art found wanting: peres : thy kingdom is divided, 
and given to the Medes and Persians. The trial is over, 
the verdict is rendered, and the sentence brought out. 
That very night the king was hurled from his throne. 
That very night the army of Darius came tearing down the 
streets, and you might have heard the clash of arms, shouts 
of war, and have seen the king's blood mingling with the 
wine in that banquet hall. 

Now I want to call your attention to that word " tekel." 
We are weighed in the balance. Now you cavil at the 
word of God ; you make light when all is going well in the 
hour of 5'our prosperity. But when the time of trial comes, 
and we are called into judgment, it will be altogether differ- 
ent. Suppose the sentence should come down from heaven 
upon every man and woman in this tabernacle to be weighed 
in the balance to-night, how would it be with you ? Come, 
my friends, are you ready to be weighed to-night ? Not in 
our own scales, but in God's balance. Suppose the scales 
were dropped now from the kingdom of God ; are you 
ready to step into the balance and be weighed. Are you 
willing to be weighed by the law? I can imagine some of 
you saying, " I wouldn't be weighed by that law (meaning 
the decalogue) ; I don't believe it" Some men think we 
are away beyond the Mosaic law ; we have got out of it. 
Why, Christ said in the fifth chapter of Matthew : " Think 
not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets ; I 
am not come to destroy but to fulfil. Heaven and earth 
may pass away, but my law shall never pass away ; " but 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE. ^ t 

not until heaven and earth shall be removed will the word 
of God be removed. Now the commandments that I read 
to you to-night are as binding as ever they have been. 
Many men say that we have no need of the commandments, 
only the sermon on the Mount. " Think not that I am come 
to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to de- 
stroy but to fulfil." Now, my friends, are you ready to be 
weighed by the law of God — by that magic law ? What is 
the first commandment ? " Thou shalt have no other Gods 
but me." Are you ready to be weighed by this command- 
ment ? Now, the question is, have you fulfilled, or are you 
ready to fulfil, all the requirements of this law ? A great 
many people say if they keep the commandments they 
don't need Christ. But have you kept them ? I will admit 
if you keep the commandments you can be saved by them, 
but is there a man in this audience who can truly say that 
he has done this ? Young lady, can you say : " I am ready 
to be weighed by the law to-night? " Can you, young man ? 
Now, suppose we have these commandments written upon 
pieces of iron. You know when you go into a grocery store 
you see them taking a weight and putting it into the scales 
against what you have bought. Now, suppose the pieces 
of iron as weights and the law of God written on them. 
Take this first commandment, " Thou shalt have no other 
God but me " upon one of the weights. Put it in one of 
the scales and just step on the other. " Thou art weighed 
in the balance." Is your heart set upon God to-night? 
Have you no other idol ? Do you love Him above father 
or mother, the wife of your bosom, your children, home or 
land, wealth or pleasure ? Have you got another God be- 
fore Him ? If you have, surely you are not ready to step 
in and be weighed against that commandment, "Thou 
shalt have no other God before me." That is the com- 
mandment of God, and it is binding to-night. Then take 
another. You will say there is no trouble about this one. 



332 v GREAT JOY. 

We might go off to other ages or other lands, and we can 
find people who worship idols, but we have none here. But 
how many idols have we in our hearts ? Many a man says, 
" Give me money and I will give you heaven ; what care I 
for all the glories and treasures of heaven ; give me treas- 
sures here. I don't care for heaven. I want to be a suc- 
cessful business man." They make money and business 
their god. Although they don't make gods of silver and 
gold, they bow before them. There are more men who 
worship silver and gold in Chicago than any other god. 
But take another one : " Thou shalt not take the name of 
the Lord thy God in vain." Is there a swearing man ready 
to put the weight into the scales and step in ? Young man, 
have you been taking the name of the Lord in vain to-day? 
What does he say ? " The Lord will not hold him guiltless 
that taketh His name in vain." I don't believe men would 
ever have been guilty of swearing unless God had told them 
not to. They don't swear by their friends, by their fathers 
and mothers, by their wives, by their children. But because 
God has forbidden it, man wants to show how he despises 
His law. " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 
God in vain." Blasphemer, go into the scales, and see how 
quick you will fly out. You will be like a feather in the 
balance. A great many men think there is nothing very 
serious in swearing ; they don't think there's much wrong 
in it. Bear in mind that He sees something in it when He 
says : " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God 
in vain." You cannot trifle with God. Some men say 
they never swear except when they get angry. Suppose 
you swear only once in six months, or a year — suppose you 
swear once in ten years, do you think God will hold you 
guiltless for that one act ? A man that swears once shows 
that his heart is rebellious to God. What are you going to 
do, blasphemer ? If the balances were here to-night, and 
God told you to step in, what would you do ? 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE. 333 

But take the fourth commandment : " Remember the Sab- 
bath day to keep it holy." Suppose you-could see the law- 
written over those walls, " Remember to keep the Sabbath- 
day to keep it holy," could you say that you had observed 
it ? Are you ready to be weighed by the weight, " Remem- 
ber the Sabbath clay to keep it holy ? " Some of us may be 
professed Christians, but do we observe the Sabbath ? If 
this country falls into neglect of the observance of the Sab- 
bath, it will go the way of France, Mexico and Spain. 
Every nation that gives up the Sabbath must go down. It 
is only a question of time with them. Look when the chil- 
dren of Israel refused to obey the injunctions of the Lord 
in regard to the cultivation of their land, how He took them 
into bondage and kept them for seventy years to let them 
know that God's land was not to be trampled under their 
feet. Are you guilty or not guilty or innocent in regard to 
this law : " Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy ? " When 
I was in France in 1867, I could not tell one day from 
another. On Sunday stores were open, buildings were 
being erected, the same as on other days. See how quick 
that country went down. Only a few years ago it stood 
breast to breast with other nations, it stood side by side 
almost with England. But it didn't have any respect for 
the Sabbath : it trampled God's message under foot, and 
when the hour of battle came, God left them alone. My 
friends, every nation that tramples the Sabbath under its 
feet must go to ruin. Are you innocent or guilty? Do you 
keep the Sabbath day holy or not ? I have been talking to 
those car conductors — and if there's any class of men I 
pity more than another it is them — and they have to work 
on the Sabbath. Some of you are breaking this law by 
coming down here on Sunday in the cars. What will you 
do ? Foot it. It will be better for you. I make a point 
of never allowing myself to break the Sabbath of any man. 
When I was in London, and it's a pretty big city, you know, 



334 GREAT JOY. 

in my ignorance I made arrangements to preach four times 
at different places one Sunday. After I had made the 
appointments I found I had to walk sixteen miles, and I 
walked it, and I slept that night with a clear conscience. 
I want no hackman to rise up in judgment against me. 
My friends, if we want to help the Sabbath, let business 
men and Christians never patronize cars on the Sabbath. 
I would hate to own stock in those horse-car companies, to 
be the means of taking the Sabbath from these men, and 
have to answer for it at the day of judgment. No man can 
work seven days a week and save his soul. And the very best 
thing we have is being taken from these men by us Chris- 
tians. Are you willing to step into the balance and be 
weighed against " Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy." 
Well, there is the fifth : " Honor thy father and mother." 
Are you ready to be weighed against this ? Have you hon- 
ored them ? Is there anyone here to-night who is dishonor- 
ing father or mother ? Now, I've lived nearly forty years, 
and I've learned one thing if I've learned nothing else, 
that no man or woman who treats disrespectfully father 
or mother ever prospers. How many young ladies have 
married against their father's wishes, and gone off and 
just made their own ruin. I never knew one case that 
did not turn out bad. They brought ruin upon them- 
selves. This is a commandment from heaven : '• Honor 
thy father and mother." In the last days men shall 
be disobedient to parents, void of natural affection ; and 
it seems as if we were living in those days now. How 
many sons treat their mothers with contempt, make 
light of their entreaties. God says, " Honor thy father 
and mother." If the balances were placed in this hall 
would you be ready to step into them against this com- 
mandment? You may make light of it and laugh at it, 
but young men, remember that God will hedge your way. 
No man shall succeed that disobeys his commandment. 



WEIGHED IN THE BAIANCE. 



33S 



But bear in mind you are not going to be weighed only 
against this solitary commandment — every weight will be 
put in. 

" Thou shalt not kill." Most of you say, " That don't 
touch me at all • I never killed anyone ; I'm no murderer." 
Look at that sermon on the Mount, which men think so 
much of. Look at it. Did you never in your heart wish 
a man dead who had done you an injury? That's murder. 
How are you ? Innocent or guilty ? If you have, you are a 
murderer at heart. Now, come, my friends, are you 
ready to be weighed against the law ? Ah, if most ot us 
were weighed to-night we would find this word written 
against us : " Tekel," thou art weighed in the balance and 
found wanting. 

But, let us take another, " Thou shalt not commit adul- 
tery." I don't know any sin that afflicts us like this. It is a 
very delicate subject to approach, but I never preach without 
being compelled to touch upon it. Young men among us 
are being bound hand and foot with this evil. Young men, 
hear this law to-night : "Thou shalt not commit adultery." 
Are you guilty even in thought? How many would come 
into the Tabernacle but that they are tied hand and foot, as 
one has been in the halls of vice, and some harlot, whose 
feet are fastened in hell, clings to him and says : " If you 
give me up, I will expose you." Can you step on the scales 
and take that harlot with you ? " Thou shalt not commit 
adultery." You may think that no one knows your doings ; 
you may think that they are all concealed ; but God knows 
it. He that covers his sins shall not prosper. Out with it 
to-night. Confess it to your Cod. Ask Him to snap the 
fetters that bind you to this sin ; ask Him to give you vic- 
tory over your passions, and shake yourself like Samson and 
say, " By the grace of God I will not go down to hell with 
a harlot," and God will give you power. " Thou shalt not 
commit adultery." As I said the other night, I don't know 



336 GREAT JOY. 

a quicker way to hell. How many men have by their lech- 
el ous life broken their mothers' heart and gone down to 
their grave rotten, leaving the effect of their sin to their pos- 
terity ? 

Well, let us take up the next. " Thou shalt not steal." 
How many have been stealing to-day ! I may be speaking 
to some clerk, who perhaps to-day took five cents out 
of his employer's drawer to buy a cigar, perhaps he took 
ten cents to get a shave, and thinks he will put it back to- 
morrow ; no one will ever know it. If you have taken a 
penny you are a thief. Do you ever think how those little 
stealings may bring you to ruin ? Let an employer find it 
out. If he don't take you into the courts, he will discharge 
you. Your hopes will be blasted, and it will be hard work 
to get up again. Whatever condition you are in do not 
take a cent that does not belong to you. Rather than steal 
go up to heaven in poverty — go up to heaven from the poor 
house — and be honest rather than go through the world in 
a gilded chariot of stolen riches. A man who takes money 
that does not belong to him never gets any comfort. He 
never has any pleasure, for he has a guilty conscience. 
" Thou shalt not steal." Are you ready to be weighed to- 
night in the balances ? 

Then let us take the ninth commandment : "Thou shalt 
not bear false witness against thy neighbor ; " or, in other 
w r ords, thou shalt not be guiltv of lying. If vou had a 
chance to make $200 or $300 are you not willing to go into 
a court and lie to get it ? " Thou shalt not bear false witness 
against thy neighbor." Are you ready to step into the 
balances against this ? Then take another. "Thou shalt 
not covet thy neighbor's goods." Are you innocent or 
guilty ? How many times I used to covet that which be 
longed to other people before I was converted. I believe 
that is one of the greatest sins among us. My friends, how 
is it ? innocent or guilty? But suppose you are innocent 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE. 337 

of all these ten commandments, let us take that eleventh 
commandment of Christ's : "Anew commandment I give 
unto you ; thou shalt love one another." My friends, how 
is it to-night ? Is love reigning in your hearts. Do you 
love your neighbors ? Do you try to do them good, or are 
you living a life of selfishness, merely for yourself. 

Now I can imagine that nearly every man or woman is 
saying to himself or herself, ■ • If we are to be judged by 
these laws how are we going to be saved ? " Every one of 
them has been broken by all people. The moral man is 
just as guilty as the rest. There is not a moralist in Chi- 
cago who, if he steps into those scales, can be saved ; " ex- 
cept a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of 
God." " Exceptye repent ye shall all perish." That is on one 
side of the scales, and He will see on the other. " Except 
ye be converted ye shall not enter the kingdom of God." 
I have heard a good many pharisees saying. " These 
meetings are reaching the drunkards and gamblers and har- 
lots ; they are doing good ; " but they don't think they need 
these meetings. They are all right : they are moral men. 
" Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom 
of God." I don't care how moral he is. Nicodemus was 
probably one of the most moral men of his day. He was 
a teacher of the law ; yet Christ said : " Except a man be 
born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." I would 
a good deal rather preach to thieves and drunkards and vag- 
abonds, than preach to self-righteous pharisees. You don't 
have to preach to those men weeks and months to convince 
them that they are sinners. When a man learns that he has 
need of God, and that he is a sinner, it is very easy to reach 
him. But, my friends, the self-righteous Pharisee needs sal- 
vation as much as any drunkard that walks the streets of 
Chicago. There is another class I want to speak of. If I had 
time I would just like to take up the different classes in the 
city. That class is the rum-sellers. Put the rum-sellers in the 

22 



338 GREAT JOY. 

balances. They ignore God's laws, but by and by He will say 
to them, " Tekel," " woe be to the man that put the bottle to 
his neighbor's lips. " My friends, I would rather have that 
right hand cup off before I would give the bottle to a man. 
I would rather have my right arm cut off than deal out 
death and damnation to my fellow-men. If any poor 
drunkard here should be summoned into eternity to-night — 
weighed in the balances, what would he hear? "No drunk- 
ard shall inherit the kingdom of God." I can see how he 
would reel and stagger when he heard that. " No drunkard 
shall inherit the kingdom of heaven." 

My friends, if you don't repent of your sins and ask Him 
for mercy, there is no hope for you. Let me ask you to- 
night to take this question home to yourself. If a summons 
should come at midnight to be weighed in the balances what 
will become of your souls, because the law of God must be 
kept. Now there are many of you only making professions. 
You belong to the first Methodist Church, or you may be a 
member of a Baptist Church, but are you ready to be weigh- 
ed — ready to step into these scales to-night. I think a great 
many would be found like those five foolish virgins. When 
the hour came they would be found with no oil in their 
lamps. If there is a person here to-night who has only an 
empty lamp, or is living on mere formalism, I beg of you 
to give it up. Give up that dead, cold, miserable lukewarm- 
ness. God will spit it out of his mouth. He will have none 
of it. Wake up. Some of you have gone almost to sleep 
while I have been trying to weigh you in the balances. God 
will weigh you, and then if you have not Christ it will be 
"Tekel." 

I can imagine some of you saying : " I would just like 
Moody to put those tests to himself. I wonder what 
would become of him." My dear friends, if God was 
to ask me to-night I would tell Him " I am ready." I don't 
say this in any spirit of egotism, of self-righteousness, re- 



WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE. ^9 

member. If you ask me if I have broken the law of Moses, 
I would answer " Yes, sir." Ask me if I have broken the 
commandments: "Yes, sir." You may ask me then how 
I am ready to be weighed. If I step into the scales to-night 
the Son of God will step into the scales with me. I would 
not dare to go into them without Him. If I did how quick 
the scales would go up. If a man has not got Christ, when 
the hour comes for him to be weighed, it will be " Tekel, 
tekel, tekel. How are you to night, my friend — ready to 
be weighed? (pointing to one of the audience). 

Answer — Yes, sir. 

Mr. Moody — Have you got Christ ? 

Answer — Yes, sir. 

Mr. Moody — That's right. Suppose I put the question to 
every man and woman in this audience. How- quick many 
of them would begin to color up. Oh, my friends, if you 
haven't got Him, get Him to-night. May God open your 
eyes and your minds to receive Him before you leave this 
Tabernacle to-night. Christ kept the law ; Christ was the 
end of the law. If He had broken the law He would have 
had to die for Himself ; but He kept it, and we are enabled 
to be clothed in righteousness. My friends, it is the height 
of madness to go out of this hall to-night and run the risk 
of being called by God and have to answer without Him. 
Now is the day and hour to accept salvation, and then He 
will be with us. Then there will be no alarm with us. I pity 
those Christian people who are afraid of death. They need 
not be afraid of death if they have Him. When He is with 
us it is only a translation. We are absent from the body 
to be present with the Lord. Here is the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Will you be saved to-night ? If you do not, when 
by-and-by God summons you into these scales, it will be 
written over you : " Tekel, tekel ; thou art weighed in the 
balances and art found wanting." My friends, what will 
you do to-night ? Remain as you are and be lost, or accept 
salvation and be saved ? Let us pray. 



THE "I WILLS" OF CHRIST. 



I want to call your attention to-night to the eight " I 
wills " of Christ. Now, when we say " I will " very often it 
don't mean much. My friends, I want you to pay attention to 
the text. I see some of you looking after Mr. Sankey. 
[Mr. Sankey moving out.] You may forget the songs 
which have been sung to-night, you may forget the sermon, 
but if the text gets down to your heart you will never for- 
get it. The eight " I wills " of Christ. I was going to 
say that a man, when he says " I will, " may not mean 
much. We very often say " I will " when we don't mean 
to fulfil what we say, but when we come to the " I will " 
of Christ, He means to fulfil it ; everything He has prom- 
ised to do He is able and willing to accomplish, and He is 
going to do it. I cannot find any passage in Scripture in 
which He says " I will " do this, or " I will " do that, but 
it will be done. The first " I will " I want to call your at- 
tention to occurs in Matthew xi. 28 : " Come unto me all ye 
that labor, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon 
you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and 
ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and 
my burden is light." Now, what is it that man wants more 
than rest ? What is it that the world is in pursuit of ? 
What are all the men in Chicago after if isn't rest ? What 
do business men toil for it is isn't for rest? Why do men 
spend their lives in hunting for wealth if it is not for rest ? 
But my friends, that is not the way to get rest. A man can- 
not find it in wealth : he cannot find it in pleasure. Take 
the pleasure-seekers of Chicago, and ask them if they have 
340 



THE " / WILLS;' OF CHRIST. 



341 



rest. They are like the waves of the sea, perpetually- 
troubled. My friends, the man who is away from God 
never knows what rest is. You can see this in their faces 
— in the wrinkles of their brow. They don't know what 
rest is. What does Christ say : " Come unto Me, all ye 
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
It isn't in the market for sale. How many men in Chicago 
would not gladly go up to the Board of Trade to-morrow 
morning, and give thousands for it if it was for sale ? 
They would give thousands of dollars for it if they could 
buy it. But it ain't for sale. If you get it you must take 
it as a gift from Him who came from heaven to give it. 
The moment a man is willing to take it as a gift it is his. 
There is one thing I notice : that a man goes in every 
direction, seeks every means, tries every person for rest 
before he comes to the true source. He will try to get 
rest in the* world, he will try to find honor in pleasure, in 
politics, but he don't get it. You cannot find one of these 
politicians who know what rest is ; you cannot find one of 
those business men who knows what rest is unless he has 
Christ. Ask any man who is after the things of the world 
if he really knows what rest is, and he will answer you " no." 
If you come to Christ he tells you : " I will " give it. I like 
this " I will. " He means it ; and if you want rest, go to- 
night and say you are weary and your soul is seeking rest, 
and He will give it. He will give it without price. Take 
it. " O man, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is 
thine help." In Him is your help and in him will you find 
rest. If there is a poor, mangled one here, come to Christ 
to-night and confess to Him. Come to Christ and He will 
take your burden away and put it behind His back, and 
He will give that weary soul rest. Now, just test it to- 
night. Let every one who is weary and heavy-laden come 
to Him to-night. 

The next " I will " is in John, sixth chapter : " Him that 



342 GREAT JOY. 

cometh to me I will in nowise cast out." That is as broad 
as the world itself. It takes that man in the gallery yon- 
der • it may be there is a poor, afflicted one hidden behind 
that post, it takes him ; it just sweeps around this building, 
taking rich and poor alike — " He that cometh to me I will 
in nowise cast out." He is so anxious to save sinners He 
will take every one who comes. He will take those who 
are so full of sin that they are despised by all who know 
them ; who have been rejected by their fathers and mothers, 
who have been cast off by the wives of their bosoms. He 
will take those who have sunk so low that upon them no 
eye of pity is cast. " Him that cometh to me I will in no- 
wise cast out." Now, why not take Him at His word ? I 
remember a few years ago a man in Farwell Hall was 
greatly troubled about his soul. "Now," said I, "take 
that verse ; what does the Lord mean when He says, ' Him 
that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out.' When He 
says that He means it." The man replied, " I will just 
take Him at His word." He started home, and while going 
over the Clark Street bridge, something whispered to him : 
" How do you know but that is a wrong translation ? " He 
was just laying right hold of it when this was whispered to 
him. The poor fellow didn't sleep any that night. He 
was greatly troubled, but at last he made up his mind 
that he would just believe it, and when he got to the Lamb 
of God he would tell Him of it, and the devil left him. 
Now, my friends, just take it. Some men say ; " I am not 
worthy to come." I never knew a man yet to go to church 
that was worthy. Why, he does not profess to save 
worthy men ; He saves sinners. As a man said in 
the inquiry-room : He didn't come to save make-believe 
sinners — painted sinners, but real sinners. A man don't 
want to draw his filthy rags of self-righteousness about 
him when he comes to Him. The only thing a sinner has 
Hat God wants is his sin. You need not bring your tears, 



THE "/ WILLS;' OF CHRIST. 343 

your prayers, your good works, or deeds * you must come 
to Him as a sinner, and He will clothe you in a garment 
fit to come before him. Now the kings of this earth call 
around them the wealthy and influential men of their king- 
dom, but when Christ came down here he called the out- 
casts, the publicans, and sinners around Him. And that 
was the principal fault the people found with Him. Those 
self-righteous Pharisees were not going to associate with 
harlots and publicans. The principal charge against him 
was : "This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them." 
Who would have such a man around him as John Bunyan 
in his time. He, a Bedford tinker, why he couldn't get 
inside one of the princely castles. I was very much amused 
when I was over on the other side. They had erected a 
monument to John Bunyan, and it was unveiled by lords 
and dukes and great men. Why, while he was on earth 
they wouldn't allow him inside the walls of their castles. 
Yet he was made one of the mightiest instruments in the 
spread of the gospel ; no book that has ever been written 
comes so near the Bible as John Bunyan's " Pilgrim's 
Progress." And he was a poor Bedford tinker. So it is 
with God. He picks up some poor, lost tramp, and makes 
him an instrument to turn hundreds and thousands to 
Christ. It is a question whether in all Chicago there is 
a man who is exercising such an influence for good as this 
man Sawyer. Four years ago he was a tramp ; he had 
been cast off by his own mother, by his own sisters, by his 
wife, and he hadn't seen his own son for fifteen years. 
Then he was a lost man. Cast off by every one, but the 
Son of God stooped low enough to save him. I doubt, as 
I said before, whether there is a man who has so much in- 
fluence as that man has to-day. "Him that cometh to Me 
I will in nowise cast out." Is there some poor outcast 
some poor tramp, here to-night ? I've got a good message 
for you. May be you are hiding awaty behind that post — 



344 GREAT JOY. 

I've got a good message for you, the best message you 
you ever heard : " Him that cometh to Me I will in nowise 
cast out." Come all — just as you are. Don't wait. He 
will take you as you sit into His loving bosom ; He will 
make you a champion of the cross, and you will become an 
instrument in His hand to build up His kingdom. Thank 
God for such a book ; thank God for such a gospel — thank 
the God of heaven for such a text : " Him that cometh to 
Me I will in nowise cast out." 

The next " I will " is found in Luke. We are told of a 
man who was full^of leprosy ; he was just rotten with it. 
Perhaps his fingers had rotted off ; it might have been that 
his nose was eaten off. That is the way leprosy affects a 
man. Well, there is a man full of leprosy, and he comes 
to Christ just as he was. A good many people, if they 
had been in his place, would have waited till they got a 
little better before they came before Him ; but this man 
wanted to get the leprosy away. If he had waited to see 
if he got better there would have been no sense in it. A 
man might as well, if he had a sick child, say, " When it 
gets better I will send for the doctor." It is because your 
child is sick that you want the doctor. It is because this 
man had the leprosy that he wanted Christ. The leper 
came to Him and said : " Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst 
make me clean." There is faith for you ; and the Lord 
touched him, saying, " I will ; be thou clean," and away 
went the leprosy as if it had been struck by lightning. I 
have oftened wondered if he ever turned around to see 
where it had gone ; no doubt, like Naaman, his flesh 
became as the flesh of a little child. He didn't wait to see 
wmether the leprosy would improve, because he was con- 
vinced it was growing worse and worse every day. So it is 
with you. You will never have a night so favorable 
for coming to Christ as this one. If you put off till to- 
morrow your sins will have become more numerous. If 



THE "I WILLS;' OF CHRIST. 345 

you wait till Sunday next a whole week's sins will be built 
upon those you have already. Therefore, the sooner you 
come the fewer sins you will have to be forgiven. Come to 
Him to-night. If you say to Him, " Lord, I am full of sin 
Thou canst make me clean;" "Lord, I have a terrible 
temper — Thou canst make me clean ; " " Lord, I have a 
deceitful heart — cleanse me, O God ; give me a new heart, 
O God ; give me the power to overcome the flesh and the 
snares of the devil ! " — if you come to Him with a sincere 
spirit you will hear the voice, " I will ; be thou clean.'' It 
will be done. Do you think that the God who created the 
world out of nothing, who by a breath put life into the 
world — do you think that if He says " Thou wilt be clean," 
you will not ? A great many people say ; " If I become 
converted, I am afraid I will not hold out." Why, don't 
you see that we cannot serve God with our own strength. 
When we accept Him He gives us strength to serve Him. 
W 7 hen He has taken away the leprosy of sin it is easy to 
live for Him. And I want to call your attention to the 
fact that even if you are bad He don't care. It may be 
that some one here has disgraced his or her father or mother ; 
it may be that they have disgraced every friend they ever 
had, and that they just despise themselves. Come to Him 
and He will cleanse you. It is to you I am speaking to- 
night. He can save you to the uttermost. 

The next " I will " I want to call your attention to is the 
" I will " of confession in Matthew ; " Whosoever, there- 
fore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess also 
before my Father which is in Heaven." Let me say right 
here that this is the very verse up to which men in Chicago 
have come. Men come to me and say : " Do you mean to 
affirm, Mr. Moody, that I've got to make a public confes- 
sion when I accept Christ ; do you mean to say I've got to 
confess Him in my place of business ; in my family ; am I 
to let the whole world know that I am on His side ? " A 



346 GREAT JOY. 

great many are willing to accept Christ, but they are not 
willing to publish it, to confess it. A great many are look- 
ing at the lions and the bears in the mountains. Now, my 
friends, the devil's mountains are only made of smoke. 
Why, he can throw a straw into your path and make a 
mountain of it. He says to you : " You cannot confess and 
pray to your family ; why, you'll break down. You cannot 
tell it to your shopmate ; he will laugh at you." But when 
you accept Him you will have power to confess Him. He 
has said : " If any man will come after Me let him deny 
himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." It is the 
way to heaven — by the way of the cross, and I believe in 
my soul that more men are stumbling upon this verse than 
upon any other. They are willing to do everthing neces- 
sary except take up the cross and follow Him. Now, let 
me read this verse again : " Whosoever, therefore, shall 
confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My 
Father, which is in heaven." When I was in London there 
was a leading doctor in that city upwards of seventy years 
of age, wrote me a note to come and see him privately about 
his soul. He was living at a country seat a little way out 
of London, and he only came into town two or three times 
a week. He was wealthy and was nearly retired. I re- 
ceived the note right in the midst of the London work, and 
told him I could not see him. I received a note a day or 
two after from a member of his family urging me to come. 
The letter said his wife had been praying for him for fifty 
years, and all the children had become Christians by her 
prayers. She had prayed for him all those years, but no 
impression had been made upon him. Upon his desk they 
had found the letter from me, and they came up to London 
to see what it meant, and I said I would see him. When 
we met I asked him if he wanted to become a Christian, 
and he seemed every way willing, but when it came to con- 
fession to his family he halted. " I tell you," said he, " I 



THE "I WILLS," OF CHRIST. 347 

cannot do that ; my life has been such that I would not 
like to confess before my family." " Now there is the 
point ; if you are not willing to confess Christ He will not 
confess you ; you cannot be His disciple." We talked for 
some time, and he accepted. I found that while I had 
been in one room the daughter and some friends, anxious 
for the salvation of that aged parent, were in the other 
room praying to God, and when he started out, willing to 
go home and confess Christ, I opened the door of the 
other room, not knowing the daughter was there, and the 
first words she said were : " Is my father saved ? " " Yes, 
I think he is," I answered, and ran down to the front door 
and called him back. " Your daughter is here," I said ; 
"this is the time to commence your confession." The 
father, with tears trickling down his cheeks, embraced his 
child. "My dear daughter, I have accepted Christ," and 
a great flood of light broke upon him at that confession. 
A great many here in Chicago are ashamed to come out 
and take their stand for Christ. If you want peace and 
joy my friends, you must be willing to confess. I am told 
that in China the height of a Chinaman's ambition is to 
have his name put in the house of Confucius. He must 
have performed some great act of valor or done the State 
some great service before he can have his name there. 
That is the highest point of a Chinaman's ambition. It 
ought to be the height of our ambition to have our name 
registered in heaven and have Christ to confess us in the 
courts of heaven. How excited we used to be during the 
war when some general did something extraordinary, and 
some one got up in Congress to confess his exploits. 
How the papers used to talk about it. If we come out 
for Christ here *He will confess us in heaven before the 
Throne and the angels. May God help you to confess 
Him to-night. 

Another " I will " — to me a very precious " I will " — 



348 GREATJOY. 

was given to those early fishermen. He said : " If you 
will follow Me I will make you fishers of men." That is 
the " I will " of service. I pity those Christians from the 
very depth of my heart, who have only made a profession 
of religion, and stopped there. My friends, they don't have 
the joy of salvation. I tell you the only happy Christians 
are those who are fishers of men. If a man be a true 
Christian he wins souls. He cannot help it, for He says, 
"If you will follow Me I will make you fishers of men." 
Peter caught more men at Pentecost than he ever caught 
fish in his nets. I have often thought of the remark one 
of the disciples made to Him as they were standing to- 
gether one day: " Lord, we have left all to follow Thee." 
What did they leave ? A few old fishing boats and broken 
nets. They were looking to those they had left behind, and 
a great many people here are looking to what they will leave 
if they serve Him. It is not necessary to leave the things 
of this life when you follow Him. It is not necessary to 
give up your business, if it's a legitimate one, in order to 
accept Christ. But you musn't set your heart on the old 
nets by a good deal. Now, my friend, if you want to be a 
religious Christian, follow Him fully. No man follows 
Christ and ever regrets it, and the nearer we get to Him the 
more useful we become. Then we will save men. It seems 
to me after I am dead and gone I would rather have a 
man to come to my grave and drop a tear and say, " Here 
lies the man who converted me ; who brought me to the 
cross of Christ " — it seems to me I would rather have this 
than a column of pure gold reaching to the skies built in my 
honor. If a man wants to be useful follow Him. You will 
succeed if you follow Him. Whenever you find a man who 
follows Christ that man you will find a successful one. He 
don't need to be a preacher, he don't need to be an evan- 
gelist to be useful. They may be useful in business. See 
what power an employer has if he likes. How he could 



THE "I WILLS;' OF CHRIST. 349 

labor with his employes and in his business relations. 
Often a man can be far more useful - in a business sphere 
than he could in another. If we want to spend a life of 
usefulness, accept Him, and He will make you fishers of 
men." Young man, don't you want to win souls to Christ? 
Well, then, just follow Him. " You follow Me, and I will 
make you fishers of men." 

The next " I will," a very precious one, is: "I will not 
leave you comfortless " down here in this dark world. 
Now some people think they have a very hard battle be- 
fore them when they accept Him. A lady came to me 
lately and said, " I am the only one of my family, who is a 
Christian; and I feel lonely. "Why," said I, " Christ is 
with you ; if you have got an elder sitting at the right hand 
of God what more do you want ? " Oh, this precious " I 
will ; " this comfort and joy, " I will be with you to the end 
of the world ; " "I will never forsake you." You may take 
comfort to-night. He will be with you always. You may 
not see Him with the eye of flesh, but you will see Him by 
the eye of faith. 

The next " I will " is found in the fourth chapter of 
John : " I will raise him up at the last day." These 
bodies of ours are going down to the grave, but they are 
not going to lie there long: the Son of God will wake it up. 
When He was here He raised up three bodies, and let me 
say to you, young children, that the first one He raised was 
a little child. Ah, there will be many little children there, 
" for of such is the kingdom of heaven." He gave us three 
instances. The first was the little girl. When the people 
heard He had raised up some one from the dead they 
thought it was a mistake. She wasn't dead ; only asleep ; 
it wasn't a real miracle. The next one was a young man. 
" Oh no," they thought, " That's no miracle ; if they had 
left him alone he'd have awoke ; he was only asleep." But 
the next case that came along was that of Lazarus, and 



350 GREAT JOY. 

Matthew tells us he had been dead four days — had been 
laid away in the sepulcher, and the Son of God merely 
said : " Lazarus, come forth." Now, I like a religion that 
gives me such comfort, that when I lay away any loved one 
in the grave, I know they will by and by hear the voice 
of the Son of God calling them forth. I used to wonder 
how Christians had so much comfort in affliction, and used 
to question whether I could have as much ; but I have 
learned that God gives us comfort when we need it. A few 
weeks ago I stood at the grave of a man I loved more than 
any one on earth, except my wife and family. As he was 
laid down in the narrow bed and the earth dropped upon 
the coffin-lid, it seemed as if a voice came to me, saying : 
" He will rise again." I like a religion by which we can 
go to the grave of our loved ones and feel that they will 
rise again : I like a religion that tells us although we sow 
them in corruption they will rise incorruptible, that although 
we sow them in weakness they will rise in power and glory 
and ascend to the kingdom of light. This is the comfort 
for Christians. Thank God for this : " I will not leave you 
comfortless." 

" I will that they may be with Me " is the sweetest of 
all. The thought that I will see Him in His beauty ; the 
thought that I will meet Him there, that I will spend 
eternity with Him, is the sweetest of them all. This last 
week we had Thanksgiving day. How many families 
gathered together, perhaps the first time in many years, 
and the thought would come stealing over some of them, 
who will be the first to break the circle ? Perhaps many of 
these circles of friends will never meet again. Thank God 
yonder the circles shall never be broken — when the fathers 
and mothers and children gather around Him in those 
mansions into which death never enters, where sickness 
and sorrow never enter through yon pearly gates. Oh, 
thank God for this blessed religion — thank God for the 



THE " I WILLS," OF CHRIST. 351 

blessed Christ; thank God for those blessed eight "I 
wills " — " Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy- 
laden, and I will give you rest ;" " Him that cometh unto 
Me I will in no wise cast out ; " " Whosoever therefore 
shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before 
My Father which is in heaven ; " " If you will follow Me I 
will make you fishers of men ; " " I will, be thou clean ; " 
" I will not leave you comfortless ; " "I will that Thou 
may be with Me." May God bless every soul in this build- 
ing to-night, and bring you to the cross. 



MISSION 0F CHRIST. 



I am going to ask our friends if they will please turn in 
their Bibles to the fourth chapter of John, and the seven- 
teenth verse : " And there was delivered unto Him the 
book of the prophet Isaiah, and when He had opened the 
book He found the place where it was written : The Spirit 
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
preach the gospel to the poor ; He hath sent me to heal 
the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, 
and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them 
that are bound; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 
And He closed the book and He gave it again to the . 
minister and sat down. And the eyes of all of them 
that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And 
He began to say unto them, This day is the Scripture ful- 
filled in your ears." I suppose our friends have noticed 
in reading the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that never 
when He was down on earth do we read about Him taking 
a copy of the Scriptures in His hands except in this syna- 
gogue. I have no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ knew 
the Scriptures from beginning to end, so that He did not 
require to take them up to find a passage. Here for the 
first and for the last time do we read about Him taking 
them in His hands. It was a prophecy he took up, and 
that prophecy was the book of Isaiah. We are told in 
Luke that the Lord Jesus Christ found a certain place. I 
suppose that means that He searched for a certain passage 
of Scripture which declared His mission to the children of 
men. He might have preached from any single text in 
352 



MISSION OF CHRIST. 353 

that wonderful book ; if He had liked He could have told 
His message without any reference to that wonderful book ; 
but He turned to the place and read : " The Spirit of the 
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach 
the gospel ; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of 
sight to the. blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." 
You know that eighteen hundred years ago books were 
not printed as they are to-day. These books were written 
on parchment and put on rollers, and the Lord Jesus 
Christ had to unroll these parchments before He came to 
the passage, saying : " The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
Me." I have often tried to imagine what thoughts 
passed through His mind as His blessed eye rested upon 
passage after passage of that book. He might have point- 
ed to that passage : " I have nourished and brought up 
children and they have rebelled against me. The ox 
knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel 
doth not know," but the Lord passed that by. He might 
have turned to a passage in the same chapter : " From the 
sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness 
in it, but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores ; they 
have been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with 
ointment," but he passed that by. He might have turned 
to that wonderful passage in the ninth chapter : " For unto 
us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the govern- 
ment shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be 
called wonderful Counsellor, the mighty God, the Ever- 
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace ; " but Jesus passed 
that by. He did not want to read about the divinity ; He 
came into that synagogue to read about the mission to 
sinners : " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me." He might 
have read that sweet passage, " though Thou wert angry 
with me Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest 
me." Jesus didn't need that — the cross had not yet had 

23 



354 GREAT JOY. 

its victim. He might have turned to that sweet thirty- 
second chapter : " And a man shall be as a hiding-place 
from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of 
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a 
weary land," but he just passed that by. He ought to 
have opened the book at that thirty-fifth chapter, where it 
speaks about water breaking out in the wilderness and the 
desert blooming, but the millenium had not come yet. 
Without Calvary there could be no millenium. So He 
turned to the passage which says : " The Spirit of the 
Lord is upon me." I wonder how those men would have felt 
had he read : " He was despised and rejected of men — a 
man of sorrows." He did not tell them how they treated 
Him ; He merely turned to the passage which spoke of 
His mission. 

And in that synagogue, on that Sabbath day, beloved 
friends, there was not a human heart any different from 
yours. They loved to hear good news or glad tidings, and 
I am sure there is not one here to-night, rich or poor, high 
or low, but likes to hear glad tidings. In Ireland, a man 
used to live opposite to where I was living, and when a 
man would come from the market with something that had 
been ordered he would ring the bell, and stand waiting for 
five or six minutes before any servant would come to the 
door. Sometimes ladies and gentlemen would come up 
and stand waiting for the door to be opened ; but I always 
noticed one thing. Whenever the postman would come 
and give his double knock, that moment three or four of 
them would come to the door. Sometimes the master and 
mistress of the house themselves would run to the door to 
get what they thought good news. You know you never 
keep the postman at the door. Everybody is fond of good 
news — -of glad tidings. Previous to my coming across to 
this great country of yours, I was holding meetings in 
London. I took my ticket from there to Manchester to 



THE MISSION OF CHRIST. 355 

bid some friends good-bye. When I got to the railway 
carriage I saw little groups of boys around two little fel- 
lows. Their coats were threadbare, with patches here and 
there carefully covering up the holes. Some good mother, 
it was evident, too poor to send them away in fine style, 
was trying to make them as neat as she could. The boys 
belonged to a Sunday school in London, and the group 
around them was their schoolmates, who had come down 
to bid them good-bye. They shook hands, and then their 
Sunday school teacher did the same, and wished them God- 
speed. After that their minister came and took them by 
the hand and breathed a prayer that they would be blessed. 
When they all had bade the boys good-bye, a poor widow 
came up and put her arms around the companion of her 
son. Perhaps he had no mother, and she kissed him for 
his mother and wished him good-bye. Then she put her 
arms around the neck of the other boy, and put his arms 
around her, and she began to weep. " Don't cry, mother," 
said the boy : " don't cry ; I'll soon be in America, and I'll 
save money, and soon send for you to come out to me ; 
I'll have you out with me. Don't cry." He stepped into 
the carriage, the steam was turned on, and the train was 
in motion when he put his head out of the window and 
cried : " Farewell, dear mother ;" and the mother's prayer 
went out : "God bless my boy ; God bless my boy." Don't 
you think that when they came to America and sent the 
first letter to England that mother would run quickly to 
the door when the postman came with that letter. How 
quick that mother would take that letter and break the 
seal. She wants to hear good news. There is not one 
here to-night who has not a message of good news, of glad 
tidings — better news than was ever received by a mother 
in England from a son in America, or from a mother in 
England by a son in America. It is glad tidings from a 
loving Saviour — glad tidings of great joy. He says : " The 



35 6 GREAT JOY. 

Spirit of the Lord is upon me " to preach good news. That 
is what brought the Saviour down from glory — to preach 
glad tidings. 

But, mark you, it is to the poor — not the poor in pocket. 
God never looks into a bank-book ; He never looks into 
your purse to see whether you are rich or poor : He looks 
into the sinner's heart, and if that sinner has nothing — no 
deeds, no prayers, no tears, then the Son of God comes 
from heaven to that poor soul: "The Spirit of the Lord 
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the 
gospel to the poor." On Friday night, in a certain place 
where I was, two or three ladies were talking about the 
Bible. One lady said to another: "I saw some of my 
friends reading the Bible, and they were looking so glum 
and melancholy." Turning round to me she said : " I 
don't think people should be melancholy when they read 
the Bible; do you, Mr. Moody?" "Well," I replied, "it 
depends upon the kind of people who read the Bible ; if 
they are unsaved sinners they will." " But," she asked, 
" tell me why." " Because that book is the death-warrant 
of an unsaved sinner ; but if a man knows that he is lost, 
that he is guilty and condemned, and he comes to the 
Saviour, then the Bible is not a death-warrant." It is a 
reprieve — it is a pardon — it is good news, glad tidings, and 
every man here to-night who is unsaved, ought to be sad 
when he reads his death-warrant ; and that is the reason 
why people unsaved do not like to read this book. When 
we believe, we hear the good news that comes to us in the 
cry from Calvary : " It is finished ! " That is the news. 
" It is finished ! " That is not bad news — that is not our 
death-warrant — that is my pardon — that is my peace — my 
justification. Jesus finished that work, and He finished 
that work for me. It is good news and glad tidings to the 
sinner, and there is not a little child in this hall to-night 
but can understand it, if they take it as God gives it in 



THE MISSION' OF CHRIST. 357 

this book. It is not long ago, it just seems the other day, 
when my dear friend Dr. Mathieson, now in heaven, told 
me he was preaching the Gospel in Scotland, and a minis- 
ter told him he had in his congregation a little idiot boy. 
He did not know what to do with him ; he had spoken to 
him many times, but the boy always said : " Ye maun wait 
till a' come to ye, and when a' come I'll sing ye a sang an' 
tell ye a story ; but ye maun wait till a' come to ye." The 
minister heard that the boy was dying, and he went to him 
and said : " Sandy, you promised me that you would sing 
me a song and tell me a story before you died ; will you 
tell it now ? " " Yes, minister," replied the boy — " Three 
in ane an' ane in three, an' Jesus Christ he died for me ; 
that's a'." " Three in one and one in three, and Jesus 
Christ he died for me." I tell you I would rather be a 
poor idiot and know that than be one of the mightiest and 
so-called wisest men in the city of Chicago, and not believe 
that Jesus took my place and died for me on Calvary's 
cross. That gospel's very simple ; it is very easy to un- 
derstand. Here am I, a poor sinner, and God has said, 
" The soul that sinneth shall die ; " but God so loved that 
sinner that He don't want him to die. He had a Son whom 
he sent from heaven to Calvary to die on that cross on 
purpose to put away our sin. Now I believe, and my sins 
are put away, and I am saved. Do you want to be saved 
to-night ? Jesus' blood was shed for you ; He put away 
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. What must I do to be 
saved ? Believe. How can believing save me ? Jesus 
died to save. It is not my believing that puts away my 
sin ; it is my belief that accepts Christ as my Saviour, and 
the moment I believe on Him, I know that eighteen hun- 
dred years ago he bled and died on purpose to give me 
everlasting life. How can I know that I can be saved to- 
night ? That dear young man in the gallery yonder — 
" Can I know I can be saved to-night ? " Yes. That dear 



358 GREAT JOY. 

mother over there — " Can I know I can be saved to-night ?*' 
Yes. That dear father here — " Can I know I can be saved 
to-night ? " Yes, before you leave your seat and go into 
the inquiry-room, if you believe He took your place and 
sent the message to you. On Thanksgiving night there 
was a young lady in the inquiry-room, who came to me, 
" Oh," said she, " will you tell me what you mean by know- 
ing that you are saved ? " She said she was a member of 
a church and loved the Saviour, but didn't know that she 
was saved. " Will you come and sit down here, and open 
your Bible at the fifth chapter of St. John, and read the 
twenty-fourth verse ? " She turned and read : " Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and be- 
lieveth in Him that sent me " — " Now, I spell the next 
word, 'H-a-t-h.'" "That's not hope," I said, "That's 
hath ; " and she turned to me, a smile lighting up her face 
through her tears, and said : " That is to have everlasting 
life." " Are you saved now ? " I asked. " Yes." " How 
do you know ? " " Because," she replied, " I said so ; that 
is how I know." We tell you to-night, in the Master's 
name, you can be saved here if you are guilty — if you have 
nothing to give to God — for He came to preach the Gospel 
to the poor. Some of you say, " Mustn't I repent for 
a week or two — must I not try and get some of the sin 
taken from me, and then go to the Lord, and when He 
sees I desire to be better it will be easier ? " My friends, 
you can't improve yourselves. He wants to take you just 
as you are. 

When I was holding meetings a little time ago at 
Wharnecliffe, in England, a coal district, a great burly col- 
lier came up to me and said in his Yorkshire dialect, 
" Dost know wha was at meetin' t'night ? " " No," I 
answered. "Why," said he, "So-and-so" (mentioning 
name). The name was a familiar one. He was a very 
bad man, one of the wildest, wickedest men in Yorkshire, 



THE MISSION OF CHRIST. 



359 



according to his own confession, and according to the 
confession of everybody who knew him. " Weel," said 
the man, " he cam' into meetin' an' said you didn't preach 
right ; he said thou preached no thin' but love o' Christ, 
an' that won't do for drunken colliers ; ye want t' shake 
'em over a pit, an he says he'll ne'er come again." He 
thought I didn't preach about hell. Mark you, my friends, 
I believe in eternal damnation ; I believe in the pit that 
burns, in the fire that's never quenched, in the worm that 
never dies, but I believe that the magnet that goes down 
to the bottom of the pit is the love of Jesus. I didn't 
expect to see him again, but he came the next night, with- 
out washing his face, right from the pit, with all his work- 
ing clothes upon him. This drunken collier sat down on 
one of the seats that were used for the children, and got as 
near to me as possible. The sermon was love from first 
to last. He listened at first attentively, but by-and-by I 
saw him with the sleeve of his rough coat, wiping his eyes. 
Soon after we had an inquiry meeting, when some of those 
praying colliers got around him, and it wasn't long before 
he was crying, " O, Lord, save me ; I am lost ; Jesus have 
mercy upon me ; " and that night he left the meeting a 
new creature. His wife told me herself, what occurred 
when he came home. His little children heard him com- 
ing along — they knew the step of his heavy clogs — and 
ran to their mother in terror, clinging to her skirts. He 
opened the door as gently as could be. He had had a 
habit of banging the door. My friends, if a man becomes 
converted, it will even make a difference in the slamming 
of doors. When he came into the house and saw the 
children clinging to their mother, frightened, he just stoop- 
ed down and picked up the youngest girl in his arms, and 
looked at her, the tears rolling down his cheeks. " Mary, 
Mary, God has sent thy father home to thee," and kissed 
her. He picked up another, " God has sent thy father 



360 GREAT JOY. 

home," and from one to another he went, and kissed them 
all, and then came to his wife and put his arms around 
her neck, " Don't cry, lass ; don't cry. God has sent thy 
husband home at last ; don't cry," and all she could do 
was to put her arms around his neck and sob. And then 
he said : " Have you got a Bible in the house, lass ? " 
They hadn't such a thing. " Well, lass, if we haven't, we 
must pray." They got down on their knees, and all he 
could say was : 

" Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, 
Look upon a little child ; 
Pity my simplicity — 

for Jesus Christ's sake, amen." It was a simple prayer, 
but God answered it. While I was at Barnet some time 
after that, a friend came to me and said : " I've got good 
news for you. So-and-so (mentioning the collier's name) 
is preaching the gospel everywhere he goes — in the pit, 
and out of the pit, and tries to win everybody to the Lord 
Jesus Christ." O, brother and sister, won't you trust the 
Saviour to-night ? dear mother and father, won't you 
believe the gospel — won't you rest upon that finished 
work ; won't you give up your doings and strivings, and 
just like a little child rest upon that Saviour ? Believe the 
glorious gospel, and have everlasting life. May God 
bless you all, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. 



THE LIFE OF LOT. 



I am going to select for my subject to-night, " The Life 
of Lot." One reason why I take up this character is be- 
cause I believe he is a representative man, and perhaps 
there is no Bible character that represents so many Chicago 
men at the present day as Lot of Sodom. Where you can 
find one Abraham, or one Daniel, or one Joshua, you can 
find a thousand Lots. He started very well ; he got rich, 
and that was the beginning of his troubles. He and Abra- 
ham, his uncle, went down to Egypt, and they came out of 
Egypt with great wealth, and the next thing we hear of is 
strife among their herdsmen. He could not get up a quar- 
rel with Abraham. Abraham said to him, "You are my 
nephew, and I cannot quarrel with you : but take your 
goods and go to the right, and I will go to the left, or I 
will go to the right and you go to the left ;" and they 
separated. Right here Lot made his mistake. He should 
have said, " No ; I don't want to leave you, the Lord has 
blessed me with you, and I don't want to leave you ;" or, if 
he had been determined to leave his uncle, he should have 
asked Abraham to choose for him. Instead of that he 
lifted up his eyes and saw the well-watered plains of 
Sodom, and that decided him. No doubt he was very 
ambitious ; he probably wanted to become richer. Per- 
haps there was a little spirit of rivalry toward his uncle. 
He wanted to excel Abraham in worldly goods, to become 
rich faster. So he saw and determined upon the well- 
watered plains of Sodom. If he had asked Abraham he 
would not have gone there. If he had asked God, Lot 

36i 



362 GREAT JOY. 

would never have entered Sodom ; no 4nan ever goes into 
Sodom 'by God's advice. He determined himself, and 
pitched his tent toward Sodom. I don't know how long he 
lived on these well- watered plains, but no doubt the men of 
those days said of him when he had settled down : " There 
is a shrewd man ; he's a smart man. Why, I can predict 
that in a very short time he will be a wealthier man than 
his uncle Abraham. Look at these well-watered plains ; 
why he is a great deal better off than Abraham now." He 
is in a position in which he can soon become rich. How 
long he remained on these plains I don't know, but the 
next thing we know is that he got into Sodom. We are 
told that Sodom was very wicked. He lived near it, and 
went into it with his eyes open, and he knew all about it. 
The wickedness of Sodom was coming up to God. He was 
going to destroy it soon. And do you think, if Lot 
had asked him, he would have allowed Lot to enter 
that city. I think one of the greatest mistakes the people 
of the present day make is that they won't let God choose 
for them ; He wouldn't choose ruin for them. All the 
years that Lot was in Sodom we don't read that he had any 
family altar. He thought it would be ruin for his family to 
take them in there. He did not look at that, however. It 
was business that took him there. He might have said, 
"Well, I've got a large family ; I've got a great many de- 
pendent upon me, and I must get rich faster, so I will go 
into Sodom. Business is the first consideration, and it 
must be attended to." So he goes to Sodom, and the next 
thing we hear he is in trouble ; Sodom had got a war on hand, 
and when he went into the city he had to take its side. In 
the war he was taken captive. It is a great m^icy he 
wasn't killed in the battle. The first thing his uncle did 
when he heard of his nephew's trouble, was to set out after 
him. When he was taken in battle he was liable to be 
taken into slavery and his children also. He might have 



THE LIFE OF LOT. ?£$ 

died in slavery if Abraham hadn't gone after him. But 
Abraham takes his servants and sets out and overtakes the 
warriors who had taken Lot captive and brought him and 
all the property back that had been taken. Now, you would 
have thought that he would have kept out of Sodom ; you'd 
have thought that he would have said : I've had enough of 
Sodom ; I wont go near it again." You would think that 
men, when they get into this and that difficulty and affliction, 
would strike out of Sodom ; but they won't. It is one of 
the greatest mysteries to me why men will remain in their 
Sodom when they have continual trouble. So he went back. 
Probably he said : " I've lost a good deal, and I must go 
back and try and recover it ; I must go back and make it 
up for my children." And he prospered in Sodom. If 
you had gone into Sodom before these angels came down 
you would probably have found that no man had got on so 
well. If they had a Congress perhaps they sent him to 
represent Sodom, because no man had done better in busi- 
ness. That is the way of the world. Perhaps they might 
have made him Mayor of Sodom. If you could have seen 
his " turn out " it would have been one of the very best. Mrs. 
Lot must have moved in the very best society of the city. 
The Misses Lot were looked upon as the most fashionable 
people there. They got on well. Oh yes, that is the way 
the men talk now. Men thousands of miles from God take 
their children right into the whirlpool that takes them to 
sure ruin. Perhaps he was a judge and had great influence. 
When the angels got to the gate they might have heard of 
the hr norable Judge Lot. It sounded pretty well. He 
might have owned a good many corner lots ; he might have 
owned a good many buildings with " Lot, Lot," printed 
s 11 over them, and on account of his property he might 
have been a very high man in Sodom. That is the way 
the world looks at it. No doubt the dispositions of the 
people were exactly as they are to-day ; human nature has 
been pretty much the same always. 



364 GREAT JOY. - 

But time rolls on, and Lot while sitting at the gate one 
evening saw two strangers upon the highway. They are 
coming toward Sodom. Likely these Sodomites did not 
know them, but twenty years before Lot had been in the 
company of Abraham, and he had seen these men at his 
uncle's home, had seen them sitting at his uncle's table, 
and he knew these angels when they approached, and 
bowed down and worshipped them, and bowed down to the 
ground and invited them into his house. But it was a sink 
of iniquity and they would not go in : they preferred to walk 
about the streets. But he pressed his invitation upon them 
and they accepted. It soon got noised around the streets 
that he had two strangers there, and it wasn't long before 
a crowd was around the door, and wanted to know who he 
had inside. And he came out to cry and pacify them, but 
they received him with cries of " who made this fellow a 
judge over us ? " and Lot was dragged into the house and 
the door was shut against the mob. His influence was 
gone. He had been in the city twenty years and hadn't 
made a convert. My friends, no man ever goes down to 
Sodom and retains his influence. Talk about men of in- 
fluence whose heart is not with God. What is their in- 
fluence ? Some one said to me to-night : " You have been 
preaching to drunkards and vagabonds ; why don't you 
preach to those sinners who live in marble-front houses 
and have influence." Why, I would rather preach to harlots 
and drunkards, because it is easier to get them into the 
kingdom of God than those sinners who live in marble- 
front houses ; we can reach them sooner ; it don't take so 
long to convince them they are sinners. I suppose Lot 
lived in a marble-front house there, and his heart was away 
from God. Then these men said to Lot : " Who have you 
got here beside yourself ? What is your family ? Have you 
got got any others beside yourself in this town ? " Well, the 
father and mother had to own up that they had married 



THE LIFE OF LOT. 365 

their children to some of the Sodomites ; that was the re- 
sult of his going into the city. You go into the world and 
live like the world and see what the result will be. How 
many mothers and fathers are now mourning on account 
of marrying their sons and daughters to Sodomites, mar- 
rying them to death and ruin. " Now," they say, "if you 
have got any, get them out of this place, for God is going 
to burn it up. Tell them this, and if they won't come es- 
cape for your lives and leave them, for He will destroy the 
city." People say: "Why are we so afflicted ; why have 
we so many sorrows ? " I believe it is because our hearts 
are from God. They have gone down to Sodom and left 
the God of their fathers. Now, all these twenty years we 
do not know that he had ever a family altar. He could not 
call his children around him and pray to his God. They 
had become identified with Sodom and its people. Look 
at that scene. There are the men at the outside of the 
door groping about to find it, and the door opens and Lot 
starts gut to tell his son-in-law of the coming destruction. 
I can see the old man's head bowed down passing through 
the streets of Sodom at midnight. He goes to a house and 
knocks. No sound ; all are asleep. He knocks again, and 
perhaps, too, shouts at the top of his voice, and the man 
gets up and opens the window. He puts his head out. 
"Who's there?" "Your father-in-law," answers the old 
man. "What has brought you out of bed at this hour? 
W T hat's up ? " " Why," says Lot, " two angels are at my 
house, who say that God is going to destroy Sodom and 
every one who remains." " Why, you go home and go to 
bed," replies the son-in-law, and mocks him. They mock 
him. He had lost his testimony, my friends. They think 
he is deluded. I can see him now going off to another 
daughter's house. I don't know how many daughters he 
had. He might have had as many daughters as Job, and 
he goes to them and they mock him too. I tell you, my 



366 GREAT JOY. 

friends, if we have got into Sodom our children will mock 
us. There is that old man in that midnight hour, plodding 
along those streets of Sodom to urge them to flee from the 
city, and they mock him. He had been long enough with 
Abraham to know that everything that came from God 
could be relied upon. Now he starts back home. You can 
see him, his head bowed down, his long white hair flowing 
over his bosom, and the tears flowing from those aged eyes. 
The world calls him a successful man • but what a miser- 
able end is his. Look at him to-night. He had got wealth; 
that's what he was after. He obtained what he wanted, 
but he got leanness of soul. You can see him go back 
bowed down with grief. Next morning the angels take 
him by the hand, he, his wife, and two daughters are led 
out of the city. And rhey lingered. How could they do 
otherwise than linger \ when they had left their sons and 
daughters in the city, and knew they would be destroyed. 
Where are your sons and daughters now ? Have you taken 
them down to Sodom, saying they must live in the plea- 
sures of society — they must get on in the world ? Where 
are they now ? Have you got them into some store or some 
office where they will hear nothing but infidelity ? If you 
have, these gray hairs will come down to an untimely 
grave. You will learn the folly of your own course when it 
is too late. Take your children from that city ; urge them 
to come from the Sodom in which they are living ; tell 
them to flee before it is too late, for the city will be des- 
troyed. Yes, they linger. I don't blame them. They pro- 
bably had a lingering hope that the storm might be stayed 
and they could get their children out. But the angels took 
them by the hand and hastened them out of the city. 
Poor mother ! Ah ! how sad when God came in judgment ! 
I can see that mother hesitating, but God orders her not 
to look back. " Flee for thy life ; escape or you will be 
destroyed." " No man having put his hand to the plow, 



THE LIFE OF LOT 367 

and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." She gets 
out of Sodom, but she looks back, and judgment falls upon 
her. And I believe that the condition of Lot's wife is the 
condition of hundreds in Chicago. They have come out 
of Sodom, but their heart is in the world. They say, 
" Have I to give up the world ; have I to give all and fol- 
low Christ ?" They linger and look back, and judgment 
will fall upon them. 

We are told in that portion of Scripture which was read 
to-night, that they were eating, drinking, buying and 
selling, planting and building till the very moment Lot 
went out of Sodom. Perhaps not a man in all Sodom 
took any account of his going out. It might have got 
rumored around that he was going because he believed 
the city was to be destroyed, but no man believed it. His 
sons and daughters didn't believe what their father said to 
them, and so destruction fell upon them, and the Son of 
God says they were all destroyed — great and small, learned 
and unlearned, rich and poor, all perished alike. Bear in 
mind that if you live in Sodom destruction will come upon 
you. The world may call you successful, but the only way 
to test success is to take a man's whole life \ not the begin- 
ning or the middle, but the whole of it. If a man is in 
Sodom, as Mr. Sankey sang to-night, he will find at last 
the fruits of his life to be — 

" Nothing but leaves, nothing but leaves." 

Lot spent his life in gaining worldly goods for his chil- 
dren, and he lost all and his children besides. How many 
men in Chicago are there who can only say they have the 
same object in view that Lot had ? They have come to 
this city to make money. They haven't any family altar. 
They recognize only two things — money, money ; business, 
business. " My sons," they say, " may become gamblers 



3 68 GREAT JOY. 

and drunkards ; my daughters may go off into ungodly 
society and marry drunkards and make their lives misera- 
ble ; but I want money, and I'll have all I want if I get it." 
That is the condition of thousands of people here. My 
friends, was Lot's life a successful one ? It was a stupend- 
ous failure. He lost his sons and daughters, he lost his 
property, his wealth, his hold on the society and friendship 
of his uncle Abraham. Is not that the condition of hun- 
dreds here to-night ? Let us strike for a higher plane ; let 
us go up to Bethel ; let us call upon God to save our chil- 
dren before it is too late. If your children have wandered 
off and got among the Sodomites, let one piercing cry go 
up : " O God, save my children ; forgive me, O Lord, for 
taking them into Sodom." Let us turn from our lukewarm- 
ness, our worldly-mindedness, and seek His face. O, may 
the Spirit of God come upon you, and may you flee from 
the doomed city before it is too late. A mother came to 
me a few days ago and said, " Mr. Moody, I want you to 
pray for me." " Well," I asked, " Why do you want to be 
prayed for?" She said, "I feel I am to blame. I've 
got three sons, and they have all gone astray, and I am the 
most wretched woman living. I feel I have't been true to 
the charge God gave me, and the thought is killing me. I 
want you to pray' for me, and if God will forgive me, and if 
I get right in His sight, with His grace by my prayers and 
faith they maybe brought back." Are there not hundreds 
here in the same condition as this poor woman ? You 
have been ambitious for your children ; you were after 
great things for them, and you have led them into Sodom, 
and now ruin has come upon them ; darkness and misery 
covers them. Let us humble ourselves before God to- 
night that He may forgive us in our lukewarmness for his 
ca'use, in our ambition to obtain great things in this world. 
Let us not follow in the footsteps of this man Lot. Look 
at a representative Lot here. I can imagine him starting 



THE LIFE OF LOT 



369 



as a moderate drinker, but the passion growns, and his 
children are infected, and he becomes, as it were, the 
father of a whole army of backsliders. He becomes the 
father of backsliding and worldly-mindedness by turning 
away from God himself. If you are in the city of Sodom, 
flee from it at once ; — escape with your lives, for destruction 
will come. May God bring every one in this hall out of 
Sodom to-night is the prayer of my heart. Let us unite in 
prayer. 

24 



THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 



I want to call your attention to-night to a text which you 
will find in the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy and 
thirty-first verse : " For their rock is not as our rock, even 
our enemies themselves being judges." I wish that this 
audience for about thirty minutes would just imagine they 
are sitting in judgment — that each one is sitting upon the 
case brought up. We want every man, woman and child 
in this building to decide the question brought before them. 
" For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies them- 
selves being judges." This was uttered by Moses in his 
farewell address to Israel. He had been with them forty 
years, day and night. He had been the king, or president, 
or judge, or whatever you may call it ; he had been their 
leader or instructor, in other words he had been a god to 
them, for all the blessings of heaven came through him. 
And the old man was about leaving them. He had taken 
them to the borders of the promised land, and all who had 
left Egypt with him, but Joshua and Caleb, had been laid 
in that wilderness. Now he is making his farewell ad- 
dress ; and, young man, if you have never read it, read it 
to-night. It is the best sermon in print. I do not know 
any other sermon in the New or Old Testament that com- 
pares with it. His natural activity hadn't abated— he had 
still the vigor of youth. I can see him as he delivers it : 
his long white hair flowing over his shoulders, and his ven- 
erable beard covering his breast as he gives them the 
wholesome instruction. Now, I want every one to wake up 



THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 



371 



here. I see one young man over there who has just gone 
to sleep. All you young men will help me if you see any 
one next you going to sleep by pinching his elbow. We 
don't want any one here to sleep. I remember when I was 
in Boston I fell asleep in church, and a man just pinched 
me and I rubbed my eyes and woke up. I looked at the 
minister, and lo and behold, I thought he was preaching 
directly at me. It seemed as if he knew all about my 
faults, and my disposition, and everything about me. I 
never felt so cheap in my life. All his remarks seemed to 
be directed to me, and I wondered who had been telling 
that minister about me. At the conclusion of the sermon I 
pulled my coat-collar up and got out as quick as I could. 
Now, bear in mind, you men who have gone to sleep are 
the very men I want to speak to. But let us go back to 
the subject. The old man was giving his farewell address, 
in which he said, " This rock is not as our rock, even our 
enemies themselves being judges." Now I am not going 
to call upon Christians to settle this question, but the 
ungodly, the unconverted, must decide this question, and 
if you be fair with the argument you will have to admit 
that " Your rock is not as our rock ; " your peace is not as 
our peace ; because we have got our feet on the rock of 
Jesus. 

You know, in the first place, that the atheist does not 
believe in any God. He denies the existence of a God. 
Now, I contend that his rock is not as our rock, and will 
let those atheists be the judges. What does an atheist 
look forward to ? Nothing. He is taking a very crooked 
path in this world. His life has been dark ; it has been 
full of disappointments. When he was a young man ambi- 
tion beckoned him on to a certain height. He has attained 
to that height, but he is not satisfied. He climbs a little 
higher, and perhaps he has got as far as he can get, but he 
is not contented. He is dissatisfied, and if he takes a look 



372 GREAT JOY. 

into the future he sees no-thing. Man's life is full of trou- 
ble. Afflictions are as numerous as the hairs of our head, 
but when the billows of affliction are rising and rolling 
over him he has no God to call upon, therefore, I contend 
his " rock is not as our rock." Look at him. He has a 
child. That atheist has all the natural affection for that 
child possible. He has a son — a noble young man — who 
starts out in life fall of promise, but he goes astray. He 
has not the will-power of his father, and cannot resist the 
temptation of the world. That father cannot call upon 
God to save his son. He sees that son go down to ruin 
step by step, and by-and-by he plunges into a hopeless, 
godless, Christless grave. And as that father looks into 
that grave he has no hope. His " rock is not as our rock." 
Look at him again. He has a child laid low with fever, 
racked with pain and torture, but the poor atheist cannot 
offer any consolation to that child. As he stands by the 
bedside of that child she says, " Father, I am dying ; in a 
little while I will go into another world. What is going to 
become of me ? Am I going to die like a dumb beast ? " 
" Yes," the poor atheist says, " I love you, my daughter ; 
but you will soon be in the grave and eaten up with the 
worms, and that will be all. There is no heaven, no here- 
after ; it is all a myth. People have been telling you there 
is a hereafter, but they have been deluding you." Did you 
ever hear an atheist going to his dying children and telling 
them this. My friends, when the hour of affliction comes 
they call in a minister to give consolation. Why don't the 
atheist preach no hereafter, no heaven, no God, in the hour 
of affliction ? This very fact is an admission that " their 
rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being 
the judges." But look again. That little child dies, and 
that atheist father follows the body to the grave and lays 
it down in its resting place and says : " All that is left of 
my child is there ; it will soon become the-companion of 



THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. ^IZ 

worms, who will feed upon it. That is all there is." Why, 
the poor man's heart is broken, and he will admit his " rock 
is not as our rock." A prominent atheist went to the grave 
with the body of his friend. He pronounced a eulogy, and 
committed all that was left of his friend to the winds — to 
nature — and bade the remains farewell forever. Oh, my 
friends, had he any consolation then ? His rock was not 
as our rock. 

A good many years ago there was a convention held in 
France, and those who. held it wanted to get the country 
to deny a God, to burn the Bible, wanted to say that a man 
passed away like a dog — like a dumb animal. What was 
the result ? Not long after, that country was filled with 
blood. Did you ever think what would take place if we could 
vote the Bible and the ministers of the gospel and God out 
from among the people ? My friends, the country would be 
deluged with blood. Your life and mine would not be 
safe in this city to-night. We could not walk through 
those streets with safety. We don't know how much we 
owe God and the influence of His gospel among even un- 
godly men. I can imagine some of you saying, " Why 
this talk about atheists? There are none here." Weil, I 
hope there isn't ; but I find a great number who come into 
the inquiry rooms ! just to look on, who confess they don't 
believe in any God or any hereafter. 

But there is another class called deists, who, you know, 
don't believe in revelation — who don't believe in Jesus 
Christ. Ask a deist who is his God. " Well," he will say, 
" He is the beginning — He who caused all things." These 
deists say there is no use to pray, because nothing can 
change the decrees of their deity ; God never answers 
prayer. " Their rock is not as our rock." In the hour of 
affliction they, too, send off for some Christian to admin- 
ister consolation. But there is another class. They say; 
" I am no deist ; I am a pantheist ; I believe that God is 



374 GREAT JOY. 

in the air ; He is in the sun, the stars, in the rain, in the 
water " — they say God . is in this wood. Why, a pantheist 
the other night told me God was in that post ; he was in 
the floor. When we come to talk to those pantheists, we 
find them no better than the deists and atheists. There 
was one of that sort that Sir Isaac Newton went to talk to. 
He used to argue with him, and try to get the pantheist 
into his belief, but he couldn't. In the hour of his distress, 
however, he cried out to the God of Sir Isaac Newton. 
Why don't they cry to their God in the hour of their trou- 
ble ? When I used to be in this city I used to be called on 
to attend a good many funerals. I would inquire what the 
man was in his belief. If I found out he was an atheist, 
or a deist, or a pantheist, when I would go to the funeral 
and, in the presence of his friends said one word about 
that man's doctrine they would feel insulted. Why is it 
that, in a trying hour, when they have been talking all the 
time against God — why is it that in the darkness of afflic- 
tion they call in believers in that God to administer con- 
solation ? 

The next class I want to call attention to is the infidel. 
I contend his "rock" is not as our "rock." Look at an 
infidel. An infidel is one who don't believe in the inspira- 
tion of Scripture. These men are very numerous, and they 
feel insulted when we call them infidels ; but the man who 
don't believe in the inspirations of Scripture is an infidel. 
A good many of them are in the church, and not a few of 
them have crept into the pulpit. These men would feel 
insulted if we called them infidels, but if a man says — I 
don't care who he is or where he preaches — if he tries to 
say that the Bible is not inspired from back to back he is 
an infidel. That is their true name, although they don't 
like to be called that. Now in that blessed book there are 
five hundred or six hundred prophecies, and every one of 
them has been fulfilled to the letter ; and yet men say they 



THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 375 

cannot believe the Bible is inspired. As I said the other 
night, those who cannot believe it have never read it. I 
hear a great many infidels talk against the Bible, but I 
haven't found the first man who ever read the Bible from 
back to back carefully and remained an infidel. My friends, 
the Bible of our mothers and fathers is true. How many 
men have said to me, " Mr. Moody, I would give the world 
if I had your faith, your consolation, the hope you have 
from your religion." Is not that a proof that " their rock 
is not as our rock ? " Now look at these prophecies in 
regard to Nineveh, in regard to Babylon, to Egypt, to the 
Jewish nation, and see how literally they have been ful- 
filled to the letter. Every promise God makes He carries 
out. But although infidels prefer their disbelief in 'the 
inspiration of Scripture, they do not believe in their hearts 
what they declare, else why, when we talk with them, if 
they have any children, do they send them out of the room ? 
Now, not long ago, I went into a man's house, and when I 
commenced to talk about religion he turned to his daughter 
and said, " You had better go out of the room ; I want to 
say a few words to Mr. Moody." When she had gone he 
opened a perfect torrent of infidelity upon me. " Why," 
said I, " did you send your daughter out of the room before 
you said this?" "Well," he replied, "I did not think it 
would do her any good to hear what I said." My friends, 
his "rock is not as our rock." Why did he send his daugh- 
ter out of the room if he believed what he said ? It was 
because he did not believe it. Why, if I believed in infi- 
delity I would wish my daughters and my sons, my wife, 
and all belonging to me sharers in the same belief. I 
would preach it wherever I went. But they doubt what 
they advocate. If they believed it down in their souls why, 
when their daughters die, do they send for a true Christian 
to administer consolation ? Why don't they send for some 
follower of Voltaire, or Hume, or Paine ? Why, when they 



376 GREAT JOY. 

make their last will, do they send for some Christian to 
carry it out ? My friends, it is because their rock has no 
foundation ; it is because in the hour of adversity, in spite 
of all their boasts of the grandeur of infidelity, they cannot 
trust their infidel friends. "Their rock is not as our rock, 
even our enemies themselves being judges." 

Now, did you ever hear of a Christian in his dying hour 
recanting ? You never did. Did you ever hear of Christ- 
ians regretting that they had accepted Christianity, and in 
their dying hour embracing infidelity ? I would like to see 
the man who could stand and say he had. But how many 
times have Christians been called to the bedside of an 
Atheist, or Deist, or Infidel in his dying hours, and heard 
him crying for mercy ? In that hour infidelity is gone, and 
he wants the God of his father and mother to take the place 
of his black infidelity. It is said of West, an eminent man, 
that he was going to take up the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion, and show the world what a fraud it was, while Lord 
Lyttleton was going to take up the conversion of Saul, and 
just show the folly of it. These men were going to annihi- 
late that doctrine and that incident of the gospel. They 
were going to emulate the Frenchman, who said it took 
twelve fishermen to build up Christ's religion, but one 
Frenchman pulled it down. From Calvary this doctrine 
rolled along the stream of time, through the eighteen hun- 
dred years, down to us, and West got at it and began to 
look at the evidence ; but instead of being able to cope 
with it he found it perfectly overwhelming — the proof that 
Christ had risen, that He had come out of the sepulchre, 
and ascended to heaven and led captivity captive. The 
light dawned upon him, and he became an expounder of 
the word of God and a champion of Christianity. And 
Lord Lyttleton, that infidel and skeptic, hadn't been long 
at the conversion of Saul before the God of Saul broke 
upon his sight, and he too began to preach. I don't believe 



THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 377 

there is a man in the audience who, if he will take his Bible 
and read it, but will be convinced of its truth. What does 
infidelity do for a man ? " Why," said a dying infidel, 
" my principles have lost me my friends ; my principles 
have sent my wife to her grave with a broken heart ; they 
have made my children beggars, and I go down to my 
grave without peace or consolation." I never heard of an 
infidel going down to his grave happily. But not only do 
they go on without peace, but how many youths, do they 
turn away from God ? How many young men are turned 
away from Christ by these infidels and devils ? Let them 
remember that God will hold them responsible if they are 
guilty of turning men away from heaven. A few infidels 
gathered around a dying friend lately, and they wanted him 
to hold on to the end, to die like a man. They were trying 
to cheer him, but the poor infidel turned to them. " Ah," 
said he, " what have I got to hold on to ? " My friends, 
let me ask you what you have got to hold on to ? Every 
Christian has Christ to hold on to — the resurrected man. 
" I am He that liveth and was dead ; and behold, I am 
alive for evermore." Thank God, we have some one to 
carry us through all our trials. But what has the infidel 
got to hold on to ; what hope has the atheist, deist, or 
pantheist ? His gods are false gods. 

They are like the false gods of the Hebrews ; they never 
hear their cry. Whereas, if we have the God of Daniel, of 
Abraham, He is always ready to succor us when in dis- 
tress, and we can make Him our fortress, and we have a 
refuge in the storm of adversity. There we can anchor 
safely, free from danger and disaster. I was reading to- 
night almost the last words of Lord Byron, and I want to 
draw a comparison between the sorrowful words of Byron 
and those of Saint Paul. He died very young — he was 
only thirty-six — after leading an ungodly life. 



378 GREAT JOY. 

" My days are in the yellow leaf, 

The flower and fruit of life are gone ; 
The worm, the canker and the grief 

Are mine alone." 

Compare those words with the words of St. Paul. " I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have 
kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up forme a crown 
of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall 
give me at that day." What a contrast ! What a dif- 
ference ! My friends, there is as much difference between 
them as there is between heaven and hell, between death 
and life. Be judges which is the most glorious — atheism, 
deism, infidelity, or the Christianity of St. Paul. May 
God take all these isms and sweep them from the world. 

I want to read to you a letter which I received some 
time ago. I read this to you because I am getting letters 
from infidels who say that not an infidel has repented dur- 
ing our meetings. Only about ten days ago I got a letter 
from an infidel, who accused me of being a liar. He said 
there had not been an infidel converted during our meet T 
ings. My friends, go up to the young converts' meeting 
any Monday night, and you will see there ten or twelve 
every night who have accepted Christ. Why, nearly every 
night we meet with a poor infidel who accepts Christ. But 
let me read this letter. We get many letters every day 
for prayer, and, my friends, you don't know the stories 
that lie behind those letters. The letter I am about to 
read was not received here, but while we were in Philadel- 
phia. W T hen I received it I put it away, intending to use 
it at a future day : 

" Dear Sir : — Allow me the privilege of addressing 
you with a few. words. The cause of writing is indeed- a 
serious one. I am the son of an aristocratic family of 
Germany — was expensively educated, and at college at 
Leipsic was ruined by drinking, etc. ; was expelled for 



THEIR ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK 



379 



gambling and dishonesty. My parents were greatly grieved 
at my conduct, and I did not dare return home, but sailed 
for America. I went to St. Louis, and remained there 
for want of money to get away. I finally obtained a situa- 
tion as bookkeeper in a dry goods house ; heard from home 
and the death of my parents. This made me more sinful 
than ever before. I heard one of your sermons, which 
made a deep impression on me. I was taken sick, and 
the words of your text came to me and troubled me. I 
have tried to find peace of God, but have not succeeded. 
My friends, by reasoning with me that there was no God, 
endeavored to comfort me. The thought of my sinfulness 
and approaching the grave, my blasphemy, my bad ex- 
ample, caused me to mourn and weep. I think God is too 
just to forgive me my sins. My life is drawing to a close. 
I have not yet received God's favor. Will you not remem- 
ber me in your prayer, and beseech God to save my soul 
from eternal destruction ? Excuse me for writing this, but 
it will be the last I shall write this side of the grave." 

Ah, my friends^ his " rock was not as our rock," even 
our enemies themselves being judges. I have two more 
letters I would like to read. I am not accustomed to read 
so many letters, but on this occasion I will read them to 
you. Some of you remember me speaking of a man who 
came in here who was a fugitive from justice. The Gov- 
ernor of the State from which he came had offered a re- 
ward for him, and he came into this Tabernacle. He 
received Christ, and returned to his State. This morning 
I received the following letter : 

"Dear Sir and Brother: — Owing to the law's slow 
delay I am yet a prisoner of hope. By Thursday or Friday 
my case will be reached, and I'll be committed to the 
Penitentiary, how long I do not know. This condition is 
voluntary, or of my own seeking, because I feel it due the 
cause of God, or the only evidence I can give of my 



380 GREAT JOY. 

repentance and desire to do better. My family and friends 
hope ultimately to obtain a pardon, I desire to thank you 
for the interest you have taken in me, and I ask your 
prayers, and those of God's people in Chicago, that I may 
have strength and grace to live under these calamities, 
that my poor heart-broken wife and children may be sus- 
tained, and, further, that God's blessing may rest on all 
efforts being made for my future. After it is all over, and 
I am in a felon's cell, I'll write you. In your efforts to 
warn men to do better and lead a new life, bid them be- 
ware of ambition to accomplish an undertaking at all 
hazards. Such is my condition. Had I left off specula- 
tion in an invention I might now be happy. Step by step 
I yielded until my forgeries reached over $30,000. My 
aim was not to defraud, but to succeed, and pay it all back. 
Oh, pray for me — for all who suffer with me. While in 
Chicago I was under an assumed name. Here I am, in 
my native village, in my father's home, a prisoner, not 
daring to go out, or even to see my children (we have 
three, two boys and one girl). I hear their voices, and 
when they sleep I silently go in their little room and look 
at them in innocent slumber. My crimes are in another 
county, whither I go Thursday. May our heavenly Father 
bless your labors. Humbly and repentant I am. * # " 

To-morrow probably he will go into the penitentiary to 
suffer for his crime, but now his rock is our rock. 

Last week a beautiful-looking young man came into the 
inquiry room. He had been brought up in a happy 
home with a good father and mother. He had gone astray. 
When he came into the inquiry room he said he intended 
to become a Christian, but he could not because he knew 
what it would make him do. He had robbed an express 
company and that sin came between him and God. He 
had been heard and received a verdict in his favor, but he 
knew he was guilty. He had gone into the witness box 



THIER ROCK IS NOT AS OUR ROCK. 381 

and committed perjury. He turned away and left the 
building. Last Friday, however, he was at the noonday 
meeting ; he was in my private room for a while, and I 
never felt so much pity for a man in my life. He wanted 
to become. a Christian, but he thought of having to go 
back and tell his father that he was guilty, after his father 
had paid $2,000 to conduct his trial. After a great 
struggle he got down on his knees and cried out, " O God, 
help me ; forgive me my sins ;" and at last he got up and 
straightened himself and said, " Well, sir, I will go back." 
A friend went down to the railway station and saw him off, 
and shortly after I got this dispatch from him : 

Mr. Moody — God has told me what to do. The future 
is as clear as crystal. I am happier than ever before. 

He went on his way, reached his native village, and I 
received this letter from him this morning, and I have felt 
my soul filled with sorrow ever since it came. Let me say 
here, if there is anyone in this hall who has taken money 
from his employer, go and tell him of it at once. It is a 
good deal better for you to confess it than have it on your 
mind — than to try to cover it up. " He that covereth his 
sins shall not prosper." If you have taken any money that 
don't belong to you, make restitution by confession at least. 
If any one here is being tempted to commit a forgery or 
any crime, let this be a warning to them : 

" My Beloved Friend and Brother : I am firm in the 
cause. I have started, and feel that God is with me in it. 
And, oh, dear brother, do never cease praying for my dear 
father and praying mother, and I wish you would someday 
write them and tell them that God will make this all for 
the best. If I live for ages I will never cease praying for 
them, and I never can forgive myself for my ungratefulness 
to my dear broken-hearted sisters and brothers and dear 
good parents. Oh, that link that held the once happy 
home is severed. O God ! may it not be forever. Would 



382 GREAT JOY. 

that I had been a Christian for life ; that I had taken my 
mother's hand when a child and walked from there, hand 
in hand, straight to heaven ; and then the stains would not 
have been. But we know, O God, that they can't follow 
me into heaven, for then I will be washed of all my sins, 
and the things that are on this earth will stay here. 

" Oh, my dear Christian brothers, my heart almost failed 
me when I was approaching my dear, happy home, and 
the thought that I was the one out of eight brothers and 
sisters to break the chain of happiness that surrounded that 
once happy and beautiful home, which is now shaded with 
misery, and the beautiful sunshine that once lit that 
happy, that dearest of homes, is now overshadowed with 
darkness. Oh, I fear it will take my dear parents ; it is 
more than they can bear. When I reached home, and they 
all greeted me with a kiss, and I told them I had started 
for heaven, and God sent me home to tell them, my mother 
shed tears of happiness, and when I was forced to bring 
the death-stroke upon her the tears ceased to flow, and God 
only can describe the scene that took place. I called them 
all around me, and I thought I could not pray if I were to 
attempt it. But when I knelt with them in prayer God 
just told me what to say, and I found it the will of God ; 
and after I had prayed I kissed them all, and asked their 
pardon for my ungratefulness, which I received from them 
all. Then I made my preparation to leave home, for how 
long God only knows, but I got grace to leave in a cheerful 
way, and it appeared for a short time ; and if God lets me 
live to return home I will join my mother's side, take her 
to church, and bring my brothers and sisters and father to 
God. We will all go to heaven together. My beloved 
brother, I must see you some day, and just tell you what 
God has done for me, and I know He will never forsake 
me, when I am shut up in those prison walls receiving the 
punishment I justly deserve for my crime. When I can't 



THEIR ROCK IS NO T AS OUR ROCK. 383 

communicate with any one else I know I will not be shut 
off from God. Oh, glory ! 

" I came to Cleveland last night, and was going to get 
that money and return it to the General Superintendent, 
but my attorney had made that arrangement already. I 
find there is an indictment at Akron against me now for 
perjury, and I am going to take the morning train and go 
to Akron. Court is in progress now, and I am going to 
ask the court if there is an indictment against me, and if 
there is I will hear it and then plead guilty. I will write 
you again soon, and give you all the particulars and the 
length of my sentence." 

I want to urge this letter upon your consideration as a 
warning. Think of the punishment that young man has 
brought upon himself ; think of the agony of that father 
and mother when he broke the news to" them — when he told 
them of his guilt. His " rock was not as our rock." May 
God bless every young man here to-night, and may they 
be brought to the acceptation of salvation. May they turn 
to Thee, God of their fathers, and of their mothers, so that 
they can say, " Your rock is our rock — we are servants of 
God." 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 



In this first parable we are told that men ought to pray 
always and everywhere ; that prayer should not be left to ' 
a few in the churches, but all men ought to pray. He 
gives us a picture, so that we may understand in what spirit 
we ought to pray. Two men went up to the temple — one 
to pray to himself and the other to pray to God, and I 
think it will be safe to divide the audience into two bodies 
and put them under these two heads. I think, however, 
whether we divide the audience or not we come under 
these two heads — those who have the spirit of the publican 
and those who have the spirit of the Pharisee. You can 
find that the whole community may be divided into these 
two classes. The spirit of the prodigal and the spirit of 
an elder brother are still in the world ; the spirits of Cain 
and Abel are. still in the world, and these two are repre- 
sentative men. One of them trusted in his own righteous- 
ness and the other didn't have any trust in it, and I say I 
think all men will come under these two heads. They 
have either given up all their self-righteousness — renounced 
it all and turned their back upon it — or else they are cling- 
ing to their own righteousness ; and you will find that 
these self-righteous men who are always clinging to their 
own righteousness are continually measuring themselves 
by their neighbors. " I thank God that I am not as other 
men are." That was the spirit of that Pharisee, and that 
is the spirit to-day of one class in this community, and the 
other class comes under the head of this other man. 

Now let us look at the man Christ pictured first. It is 
384 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 385 

evident that he was full of egotism, full of conceit, full of 
pride ; and I believe, as I have said before on this plat- 
form, that is one of the greatest enemies the Son of God 
has to-day ; and I believe it keeps more men from the 
kingdom of God than anything else. Pride can grow on 
any soil, in any climate — no place is too hot for it, and 
no place is too cold for its growth. How much misery has 
it caused in this world ! How many men here are kept 
from salvation by pride ? Why, it sprung up into heaven, 
and for it Lucifer was cast out ; by pride Nebuchadnezzar 
lost his throne. As he walked through Babylon he cried, 
"Is not this a great Babylon which I have built?" and he 
was hurled from his throne. How many men who have 
become drunkards, who are all broken up — will gone, 
health gone — and yet are just as full of pride as the sun is 
of light. It won't let them come to Christ and be saved. 
A great many live like this Pharisee — only in the form of 
religion ; they don't want the wheat, only the husk ; they 
don't want the kernel, only the shell. How many men are 
there in Chicago who are just living on empty form ? They 
say their prayers, but they don't mean anything. Why, 
this Pharisee said plenty of prayers, but how did he 
pray ? He prayed with himself. He might as well pray 
to this post. He didn't pray to God, who knew his heart 
a thousand times better than he did himself. He thought 
he knew himself. He forgot that he was as a sepulcher, 
full of dead men's bones ; forgot that hisdieartwas rotten, 
corrupt, and vile, and he comes and spreads out his hands 
and looks up to heaven. Why, the very angels in heaven 
veil their faces before God as they cry " Holy, holy, holy." 
But this Pharisee comes into the temple and spreads out 
his hands, and says, " Lord, I thank Thee that I am not 
as other men are ; I fast twice a week." He set before 
God what he had done in comparison with other men, and 
was striking a balance and making out God to be his 

25 



3&6 GREAT JOY. 

debtor, as thousands in Chicago are doing to-day; and 
then he says, " I give one-tenth of all I possess." I sup- 
pose if he was living in Chicago now, and we had gone to 
him and asked him for a donation to put up this Taber- 
nacle, he would have said : " Well. I think it will do 
good; yes, I think it will — it may reach the vagabonds 
and outcasts — I don't need it, of course — but if it will 
reach that class it will do good. I will give $50, espe- 
cially if you can get it in the morning papers ; if you can 
have it announced, 'John Jones gave $50 to build the 
Tabernacle.' " That's the way some of the people give 
donations to God's cause; they give in a patronizing way, 
but in this manner God won't accept it. If your heart 
don't go with your gift, God will not accept it. This 
Pharisee says, " I give one-tenth of all I have ; I 
keep up the services in the temple ; I fast twice a 
week." He fasted twice a week, although once was 
only called for, and he thought because of this he was 
far above other men. A great many people nowadays 
think because they don't eat meat, only fish, on Fridays, 
they deserve great credit, although they go on sinning all 
the w r eek. Look at this prayer ; there's no confession 
there. He had got so bad and the devil had so covered 
up his sins that he was above confession. The first thing 
we have to do when we come to God is to confess. If 
there is any sin clustering around the heart bear in mind 
we can have no communion with God. It is because we 
have sin about our hearts that our prayers don't go any 
higher than our head. We cannot get God's favor if we 
have any iniquity in our heart. People, like the Pharisee, 
have only been educated to pray. If they didn't pray 
every night their conscience would trouble them, and they 
would get out of bed and say their prayers ; but the mo- 
ment they get off their knees perhaps you may hear them 
swearing. A man may just as well get a string of beads 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 387 

and pray to them. It would do him as much good. This 
Pharisee's prayer showed no spirit of contrition ; there 
was no petition ; he didn't ask anything from God. That 
is a queer kind of prayer. " Lord, I thank Thee that I 
am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterous, 
or even as the poor publican." Not a petition in his 
prayer. It was a prayerless prayer — it was downright 
mockery. But how many men have just got into that 
cradle and been rocked to sleep by the devil. A short 
time ago I said to a man ; " Are you a Christian ? " " Of 
course I am; I say my prayers every night." "But do 
you ever pray? " " Didn't I tell you I prayed ?" he an- 
swered. " But do you ever pray ? " " Why, of course I 
do ; haven't I said so ? " was his reply. I found that he 
prayed, but he only went through the form, and, after a 
little, I found that he had been in the habit of swearing ! 
" How is this ? " I asked ; " swearing and praying ! Do 
your prayers ever go any higher than your head ? " 
" Well," he replied. " I have sometimes thought that they 
didn't." My friends, if you are not in communion with 
God your prayers are but forms, you are living in formal- 
ism, and your prayers will go no higher than your head. 
How many people in this assembly just go through the 
form ? They cannot rest unless they say their prayers. 
How many are there with whom it is only a matter of edu- 
cation ? 

But this man trusted in his own righteousness ; he ig- 
nored the mercy of God, the love of Jesus Christ. He was 
measuring himself by his own rule. Now, if you want to 
measure yourself, do it by God's law ; by God's require- 
ments. A great many people have a rule of their own by 
which they measure themselves, and by that rule are per- 
fectly ready and willing to forgive themselves. So it was 
with this Pharisee. The idea of coming to God and asking 
His forgiveness never enters his mind. While talking to a 



388 GREAT JOY. 

man — one of those Pharisees — some time ago about God 
and his need of Christ, he said : " I can do without Christ ; 
I don't want Him ; I'm ready to stand before God any- 
time." That man was trusting in his own righteousness. 
There are a good many in Chicago like this man ; they 
think they can get on without Christ—without a mediator. 
Now take a good look at this man. You know I have an 
idea that the Bible is like an album. I go into a man's 
house, and, while waiting for him, I take up an album from 
a table and open it. I look at a picture. " Why that looks 
like a man I know." I turn over and look at another. 
"Well, I know that man." By and by I come upon another. 
" Why that man looks like my brother." I am getting 
pretty near home. I keep turning over the leaves. " Well, 
I declare, there is a man who lives in the street I do — why, 
he is my next-door neighbor. And then I come upon an- 
other and I see myself. My friends, if you read your 
Bibles you will find your own pictures there. It will just 
describe you. Now it may be there is some Pharisee here 
to-night ; if there is, let him turn to the third chapter of 
John and see what Christ said to the Pharisee : " Except 
a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God." 
Nicodemus, no doubt, was one of the fairest specimens of a 
man in Jerusalem in those days, yet he had to be born 
again, else he couldn't see the kingdom of God. But you 
may say : " I am not a Pharisee ; I am a poor, miserabfe 
sinner, too bad to come to Him." Well, turn to the woman 
of Samaria, and see what He said to her. 

See what a difference there was between that publican 
and that Pharisee. There was as great a distance be- 
tween them as between the sun and the moon. One was 
in the very highest station, and the other occupied the very 
worst. One had only himself and his sins to bring to God, 
and the other was trying to bring in his position and his 
aristocracy. I tell you when a man gets a true sight of 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 389 

himself all his position and station and excellences drop. 
See this prayer: "I thank God," " I am not," "I fast," "I 
give," " I possess." Why, if he had delivered a long prayer, 
and it had been put into the printers' hands, they would have 
had to send out for some " I's." " I thank God," " I," " I," 
" I." When a man prays, not with himself, but to God, he 
does not exalt himself, he don't pass a eulogy upon him- 
self. He falls flat down in the dust before God. In that 
prayer you don't find him thanking God for what He had 
done for him. It was a heartless, prayerless prayer — 
merely a form. I hope the day will come when formal 
prayers will be a thing of the past. I think the reason why 
we cannot get more people out to the meetings is because 
we have too many formal prayers in the churches. These 
formal Christians get up like this Pharisee and thank God 
they are better than other men, but when a man gets a 
look at himself he comes in the spirit of the publican. 
You see this man standing praying with himself, but God 
could not give him anything. He was too full of egotism — 
too full of himself. There was no religion in it. God 
could not bless him. 

Now, for a moment, take a look at that poor publican. 
Just give his prayer your attention. There was no capi- 
tal " I" there, no exalting of himself — " God be merciful to 
this Pharisee ; God be merciful to the other people who 
have injured me ; God be merciful to the church members 
who have not been true to their belief ? " Was that his 
prayer? Thank God he got to himself. " God be merciful 
to me, a sinner." It was very short. He had got his eye 
upon himself ; he saw that his heart was vile ; he could 
not lift his eyes to heaven, but thank God he could lift his 
heart to heaven. There is not a poor publican in the audi- 
ence to-night but can send up this prayer. No matter 
what your past life has been — no matter if it has been as 
black as hell — if you but send up the prayer it will be heard. 



390 GREAT JOY. 

He didn't buy his own righteousness ; and God heard his 
prayer. Spurgeon, speaking of that publican, said he had 
the soundest theology of any man in all England. He 
came before God, struck his hand on his heart, and cried : 
"God, be merciful to me, a sinner." 

There was a man at one of our meetings in New York 
City who was moved by the Spirit of God. He said, " I 
am going home, and I am not going to sleep to-night till 
Christ takes away my sin ; if I have to stay up all night 
and pray. I'll do it." He had a good distance to walk, 
and as he went along he thought, " Why can't I pray now 
as I go along, instead of waiting to go home ? " But he 
did not know a prayer. His mother had taught him to 
pray, but it was so long since he had uttered a prayer that 
he had forgotten. However, the publican's prayer came 
to his mind. Everybody can say this prayer. That man 
in the gallery yonder, that young lady over there : " God 
be merciful to me a sinner." May God write it on your 
hearts to-night. If you forget the sermon, don't forget that 
prayer. It is a very short prayer, and it has brought joy 
— salvation — to many a soul. Well, this prayer came to 
the man, and he began, " God be merciful to me a — ," but 
before he got to sinner God blessed him. He got up in 
the young converts' meeting and told us as he said those 
words the light of eternal truth broke upon his soul — the 
light from the celestial regions of glory broke upon him 
— and when we left New York he was walking in the 
righteousness of God. 

In a meeting recently a man got up. I didn't know 
him at first. When I was here he was a rumseller, and 
broke up his business and went to the mountains. This 
is how it happened. When I was here before he opened 
a saloon and a grand billiard hall. It was one of the most 
magnificent billiard halls on the West Side, all elegantly 
gilded and frescoed. For the opening he sent me an in- 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 



39 1 



vitation to be present, which I accepted, and went around 
before he opened it. I saw the partners and asked them if 
they would allow me to bring a friend. They asked me 
who it was. Well, it isn't necessary to tell who it is, but 
I never go without him." They began -to mistrust me. 
" Who is it ? " they again inquired. " Well, I'll come with 
him and if I see anything wrong I'll ask him to forgive you." 
" Come," said they, " We don't want any praying." 
"You've given me an invitation, and I am coming." " But 
if you come you needn't pray." " Well," said I, " I'll 
tell you what we'll do, we'll compromise the matter, and 
if you don't want me to come and pray for you then, 
let me pray for both of you now," which they agreed 
to. It turned out that one of them had a praying mother, 
and the prayer touched his heart, and the other had a 
mother in heaven. I asked God to bless their souls, and 
just to break their business to pieces. In a few months 
their business did go all to pieces. The man who got 
up in the prayer meeting told me a story that touched my 
soul. He said with his business he hadn't prospered — he 
failed, and went away to the Rocky Mountains. Life 
became a burden to him and he made up his mind that he 
would go to some part of the mountains and put an end to 
his days. He took a knife with him which he proposed 
driving into his heart. He sought a part of the mountains 
to kill himself. He had the knife ready to plunge into 
his heart, when he heard a voice — it was the voice of his 
mother. He remembered her words when she was dy- 
ing, even though he was a boy then. He heard her say 
" Johnny, if ever you get into trouble, pray to God." That 
knife dropped from his hand, and he asked God to be 
merciful to him. He was accepted, and he came back 
to Chicago and lifted up his voice for Him. He may be 
in this Tabernacle to-night. Just the moment he cried 
for mercy he got it. If you only cry, " God, be merciful 



392 GREAT JOY. 

to me a sinner," He will hear you. Is there anything to 
hinder you from doing this to-night : is there anything to 
hinder any man, woman or child in this hall to-night from 
sending up this prayer. What a glorious thing it would 
be if every soul in this hall would but lift up their hearts 
with the prayer " God, be merciful to me a sinner." 

Now, a man asked me the other day, " How is it that a 
man who has lived an ungodly life can come in here and 
be saved all at once ? " Why, God so loves the sinner that 
He is willing to give them salvation instantly — He wants 
to save every one now in Chicago. The trouble is that we 
don't want God to be merciful ; we don't want His forgive- 
ness. God is full of compassion and love. It is the spirit 
of the devil that makes you believe the sins committed dur- 
ing the past twenty years cannot be forgiven to-night. My 
friends, won't you try Him ? But I will take you who be- 
lieve this way, upon your own ground. Here is a father 
down here. He is full of self-righteousness ; he is a Phar- 
isee. He has a boy whom he has not seen for twenty 
years. Well, as he goes home to-night his servants tell 
him, " Your absent son has returned." " What ! " he ex- 
claims, " my absent boy Johnny here — in this house ? " 
" Yes, he is down in the kitchen ; we wanted him to go into 
the parlor, but he wouldn't ; he said the kitchen was good 
enough for him." He tells those servants to take him to 
his son, and for a moment the boy looks at him, " Father, 
father," he cries, " I have been bad ; I haven't dDne a good 
act in twenty years ; I have been very unkind to you ; but, 
father, won't you forgive me ? " Say, father, wouldn't you 
forgive him ? Wouldn't you ? I would like to see a man 
in Chicago who would not. I can give you a little ex- 
perience of my own family. Before I was four years old 
the first thing I remember was the death of my father. He 
had been unfortunate in business and failed. Soon after 
his death the creditors came in and took everything. My 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. ^9Z 

mother was left with a large family of children. One ca- 
lamity after another swept over the entire household. Twins 
were added to the family, and my mother was taken sick. 
The eldest boy was fifteen years of age, and to him my 
mother looked as a stay in her calamity, but all at once 
that boy became a wanderer. He had been reading some 
of the trashy novels, and the belief had seized him that 
he had only to go away and make a fortune. Awsy he went. 
I can remember how eagerly she used to look for tidings 
of that boy ; how she used to send us to the post-office to 
see if there was a letter from him, and recollect how we 
used to come back with the sad news, " No letter." I re- 
member how in the evenings we would sit beside her in 
that New England home, and we would talk about our 
father; but the moment the name of that boy was men- 
tioned she would hush us into silence. Some nights when 
the wind was very high, and the house, which was upon a 
hill, would tremble at every gush, the voice of my mother 
was raised in prayer for that wanderer who had treated her 
so unkindly. I used to think she loved him more than all 
the rest of us put together, and I believe she did. On a 
Thanksgiving day — you know that is a family day in New 
England — she used to set a chair for him, thinking he 
would return home. Her family grew up, and her boys 
left home. When I got so that I could write, I sent letters 
all over the country, but could find no trace of him. One 
day while in Boston the news reached me that he had re- 
turned. While in that city I remember how I used to look 
for him in every store — he had a mark on his face — but I 
never got any trace. One day while my mother was sitting 
at the door, a stranger was seen coming toward the house, 
and when he came to the door he stopped. My mother 
didn't know her boy. He stood there with folded arms, and 
a great beard flowing down his breast, his tears trickling 
down his face. When my mother saw those tears she cried 



394 GREAT JOY. 

" Oh, it's my lost son," and entreated him to come in. But, 
he stood still. " No, mother," he said, " I will not come 
in till I hear first you have forgiven me." Do you believe 
she was not willing to forgive him ? Do you think she was 
likely to keep him long standing there ? She rushed to the 
threshold and threw her arms around him, and breathed 
forgiveness. Ah, sinner, if you but ask God to be merciful 
to you, a sinner, ask Him for forgiveness, although your 
life has been bad — ask Him for mercy, and He will not 
keep you long waiting for an answer. May that be the cry 
of every lost soul in this Tabernacle to-night. "God be 
merciful to me, a sinner." Now, do you want to have 
mercy ? Say, young man, will you ask Him to-night ? 
Young lady, will this be your cry to-night : " God, be mer- 
ciful to me, a sinner ? " May the love of God break every 
obdurate heart here to-night, and may this be the cry of 
every sinner. Don't have so much pride, don't have the 
spirit of the Pharisee — that's the spirit that keeps you from 
entering the inquiry-room and coming to the God of love, 
the God of compassion, the God of mercy, of peace, of joy, 
of everlasting happiness. Let every man and woman in 
this assemblage out of Christ take the place of this publi- 
can and go into the inquiry-room. Let us pray. 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 



I want to call your attention for a few minutes this 
evening to this man that the Saviour has brought before us 
in this portion of Scripture. You will see by reading it that 
he was what we would call now-a-days a successful business 
man — a man that many parents would holdup to their sons 
as a model. I don't think he was a drinking man ; there's 
nothing in the story that would lead us to suppose he was. 
He hadn't made his money in getting up corners on grain ; 
he didn't get it by any acts of usury by which he drew 
twenty per cent. ; he didn't get it by making a corner on 
gold or getting up a Black Friday ; he didn't make his 
money by betting on election or buying stocks, but he got 
it lawfully. No doubt he was a moralist ; certainly there 
is nothing in what we have read to-night against his 
character. That was not his fault. He didn't rent his 
property for billiard halls, for liquor saloons, or to harlots ; 
he was a farmer. I don't know of a more lawful occupa- 
tion than that of a farmer, He was a successful man. I 
don't believe he ever compromised with his creditors by 
paying 50 cents on the dollar when he could pay 100. He 
didn't get his money that way. He didn't get it by shaving 
notes, or by taking advantage of the widow and orphan, or 
those who were poor, but he got it lawfully. He was an 
upright man. I presume if he was here we would send him 
to Congress, or if we could not send him to Congress we 
would make him Mayor. He was a thoroughly good 
business man, who payee} all he promised to pay. He was 

395 



396 GREAT JOY. 

what we would call a shrewd man — a long-headed man, 
just deluged with business, and, undoubtedly, if you had 
spoken to him about his soul's welfare he would have 
turned to Scripture and said, " be not slothful in business." 
Business must be attended to first ; that's what Scripture 
teaches. And I think that Chicago men have got as far as 
that in Scripture, and there they stop. A man came out 
here from the East, and a minister asked him to preach in 
his pulpit, and he picked out the text " not slothful in 
business," but went no further. " Why," said the minister 
to him, "don't you know that all Chicago have got that 
down in their soul ; why don't you preach upon the whole 
of the text, and not a part ?" " Not slothful in business," 
Chicago don't want that kind of preaching. He forgot the 
rest — " fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." This man was 
earnest with business. He had got off that part of the 
text. Undoubtedly he moved in the best society of his 
time. He had the best turn-out in that part of the country. 
He had the best farm in that section of the country, and 
the best horses and cattle. If he had been living to-day, 
probably he would have had the best short-horn cattle and 
the very finest wool sheep. He had the very best undoubt- 
edly, in his time, and had been called a great success. No 
doubt in those days they had revival meetings, of course 
they had, because one of the greatest revivals that ever 
took place occurred in those days under John the Baptist. 
Perhaps it took place near his farm, but he could not leave 
his business to attend it. Great multitudes flocked past 
his house from early morn till late at night on their way to 
the banks of the Jordan to hear the greatest revivalist that 
ever lived, except Jesus Christ. But he didn't leave his 
business to go ; he probably thought they were fanatics. 
The idea of a business man turning from his legitimate 
business, from his merchandise— should waste his time to 
hear that preacher. No doubt he belonged to the syna- 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 



397 



gogue. He believed in set doctrines and walked accord- 
ingly. He would not hear of those innovations. The idea 
of spending his time in going to listen to a man who was 
clothed with a leather girdle and fed on locusts an'd wild 
honey ! No, sir ; he wouldn't hear him. Undoubtedly 
Jesus and His apostles passed by that way, and he might 
have one night entertained Him. Perhaps he had heard 
about the dead being raised by this man as these drunkards 
are being raised in Chicago to-day — men who are being 
lifted from sin and degradation and a new song put into 
their mouth. Like a great many of these business men to- 
day, perhaps he said : " Oh, it's only a nine days' wonder, 
and the excitement will be gone soon." Christ came and 
went, but he was so pressed with business that he hadn't 
time to attend to what that heavenly preacher said. He 
hadn't time to go to those meetings on the banks of the 
Jordan. So it is with men to-day. They haven't time to 
look into this great question of Jesus Christ. They have 
heard of Him, but can't stop to see how He came, why He 
came, or what He has done ? Business is so pressing. 
Undoubtedly he had the very best wine there was in the 
land, and it was always on his table, although he wasn't a 
drunkard. He had the very best fruit, the very best fish 
and game upon his table. The very best material he wore 
— perhaps he sent all the way down to Egypt to buy cloth- 
ing for his wife and daughters. His turn-out was the most 
stylish — probably he was often seen with a four-in-hand on 
the highway. Everybody said he was getting along nicely. 
If a friend came to see him he would take him all around, 
and show him his land and his barns, and point to this and 
that part that he was going to pull down and make larger ; 
business was increasing. He would show him all through 
his grand house, and tell how he was once a poor boy, how 
his father died, and how the creditors came and took every- 
thing — how he had commenced life with nothing, and he had 



398 GREAT JOY. 

made all his friend saw. Just like a great many men here. 
They will tell how they came to Chicago poor boys, how 
by hard work, by incessant toiling, they have gained what 
theyjhave now, taking all the glory to themselves instead of 
giving it to God. Look at him ! If a man cheated him 
out of $5 how he would resent it. Shrewd, practical, 
business man • and yet the devil was cheating him out of 
his soul. That is the way to-day. They are just living for 
time. The great trouble with this man was he was blind — 
he was just living from the cradle to the grave. He didn't 
want to take death into his plans. " In every man's garden 
there is a sepulcher." My friends, in every man's home 
there is a sepulcher. Death is inevitable, and is not a man 
mad who does not take it into his plans ? 

Look at him. One night he is in the drawing-room of 
this beautiful palatial home, and he stands with an archi- 
tect looking over plans. He is going to have a new barn 
built. It is going to be the best that money can erect. He 
don't want any of his neighbors to approach him. It is 
going to be the very best. The architect has gone away, 
and he stands there looking over the plans. His family 
have retired, and all the servants have gone to bed. 
The doors and windows are all double-locked, double-barred, 
sealed, chained — fastened securely, but a stranger comes 
in slowly and lays a cold hand upon him, and says, " Come ! 
I must take thee away." "Who art thou, stranger?" "I 
am Death." He should not have been any stranger to 
him. The idea of Death being a stranger to any of us. 
Why, death is all around us. No doubt he had attended 
many funerals, and perhaps acted as pall-bearer. Perhaps 
he was like some people in Chicago ; he never heard a ser- 
mon except when he attended a funeral. He had heard a 
sermon then and had seen the body laid in the ground, and 
now his time has come. He wants to bribe Death, and 
offers him thousands of dollars to give him a little more 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 



399 



time; but he cannot bribe Death. You can bribe poli- 
ticians, you may bribe these business men, but there is an 
officer that never can be bought, never can be bribed, and 
when he comes we have to obey his summons. When 
Death says, " Come, you must go with me," we have to 
obey him. When Death entered that chamber and said, 
" Come, I want thee," he might have cried, " Let me live a 
little longer ; let me have these places finished ; just a few 
years longer." "Come," says Death, "come." "Why, 
what are you going to do with me ? Where are you going 
to take me ? " " You have had time enough to see to that ; 
you must come now." The man weeps and cries, "I've got 
a loving wife, I have loving children, I have got a perfect 
palace — a beautiful home, which I have been all my life 
preparing; Tve just got it fixed up now; don't summon 
me away now ; oh, Death, spare me a little longer." Like 
that queen he cries, " O for an inch of time ! " But says 
Death, " Come ! " and lays his cold hand upon that heart 
and it ceases to beat. Perhaps when the servants come in 
they find him sitting at his desk dead. The news spreads 
through the house, and that wife learns she is a widow. I 
see that widow and those children gathering around the 
body of that father. The family physician comes. He 
looks at that body and puts his hand on that pulse, but 
the pulse that told the man how fast he was travelling to- 
ward eternity had ceased to beat. There is a stir in that 
community next morning — " Squire so-and-so is dead ; he 
was a shrewd man ; practical, successful man." Perhaps 
at the funeral the whole community turned out, and prob- 
ably got a minister, as they get them in our day, to come 
to the funeral and deliver a eulogy over him, who said he 
was very benevolent to the poor, he was very philanthropic, 
and held him up as an example. It appears to me there is 
more lying at funerals than anywhere else. Men stand up 
and pronounce a eulogy over men who have lived a church- 



4 oo GREAT JOY. 

less, godless life — who have gone down to a Christless, 
godless grave, and say because they have been wise and 
good to the poor they have gone to a better world. God 
sees differently. You and I may try to make out this man 
as a shrewd man, a wise man, a man to be held up as an 
example, but just see what the Son of Man says about him. 
He says such a man is an abomination to God. The Son 
of Man says : " Thou fool." He wrote his epitaph, and it 
has been handed down to us as a warning — handed down 
for i, 800 years. • 

I can imagine some of you saying, " If I had known that 
he would have talked about" death to-night, I would not 
have come. Why don't he talk about life, about happiness ; 
why don't he tell us about how to get on in business — how 
to get through the battle of life ? Why does he speak about 
death only?" I will tell you why it is. It is because nine 
out of every ten die unexpectedly ; it is because nine 
out of every ten die wholly unprepared. They may have 
been warned, death may have come very near. It might 
have entered their house and taken away a loved wife, 
loved children, a loved father or mother — death may have 
come into their homes four, five, six, seven, ten times, and 
taken away relatives from their midst. Yet they are unpre- 
pared. Do you know that six millions of people die 
annually in the world ? Since I came here and began 
preaching in this Tabernacle death has thrown its mantle 
around many a one. Do you remember that death 
in this cold, dark, bleak night is doing its work ? I 
am speaking to some who may be in. eternity to-mor- 
row. I come to tell you to be prepared. Is not it 
downright folly to spend your lives in piling up wealth 
and to die .as this man died, without hope, without 
Christ, without eternal life. Let me call your attention to 
this. The sin of this man was simply neglect. It is clear. 
We cannot condemn his business. It was honest, legit- 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 4 oi 

imate. But the thing we ,do condemn is, that he neglected 
to secure his soul's salvation. A great many say : " Am I 
not kind to the poor, am I not honorable in all my trans- 
actions, do I not pay a hundred cents on a dollar always ? " 
But are you honest to your soul's salvation ? You may 
fold your arms and depend upon your deeds, but if you do 
not seek salvation in this world you will be lost. You 
know that there are three steps down the hill, and they 
are to neglect, to refuse, and to despise. Now all in this 
audience are standing on some of the steps of this ladder. 
You can see how if a man neglects his salvation he will be 
lost. All you men, if you neglect your business, leave it to 
itself, you know you will soon become bankrupt. And if 
man wants to die all he has to do is to call in a doctor. 
Look at a general of an arm)'- of 10,000 men. He knows 
that there is an army of 10,000 coming to meet him, but 
he goes and takes his glass and sees in the distance 
another army of 10,000 men who are coming up to rein- 
force his enemy. He knows he cannot delay ; if he does 
he will soon be overwhelmed by the 20,000 men ahead of 
him. A man who neglects his soul's salvation does not 
look at what is ahead of him, and the enemy comes up and 
overwhelms him. Death comes, as it probably came to 
this man, at the midnight hour, unexpectedly and unbidden. 
You know more men die at night than in the day — from 
12 to three o'clock in the morning. How many men die 
unexpectedly. Look at the millions and millions who die 
unexpectedly. Although we live an allotted time — three 
score and ten — when death comes it comes unexpectedly. 
This man had provided for his family ; he had built up a 
great business, had provided for his own wants, but he 
made no provision for his own soul. You might have 
gone to his house and taken up a pencil and written on 
everything he possessed "Thou fool." He spent all his 
life in accumulating money, and then he had to leave it all. 

26 



4 02 GREAT JOY. 

A sailor was telling a man that his father and his grand- 
father, and his great grandfather were all drowned at sea, 
and the man said, " Why don't you get prepared to die, 
then, you may be drowned any day, too ? ' " Where did 
your father die ? " inquired the sailor. " On land." " And 
your grandfather ? " " On land." " And your great grand- 
father ? " " On land too." " Are you prepared to die ? " 
" Well, no." " Why don't you get prepared ? " asked the 
sailor. He didn't thiilk he was in danger continually him- 
self, but that the sailor was. 

I think the greatest text that is given to us is "Prepare 
to meet thy God." Are you ready ? Why do you neglect 
any longer to accept salvation ? All the children of Israel 
had to do to be cured was to look on that brazen serpent ; 
they were healed instantly. If they neglected to look upon 
that serpent they died. All you have got to do is to look 
upon Christ and receive life. Look at the Indian who is 
in his canoe. He has gone to sleep. Perhaps he may be 
dreaming about hunting-grounds, perhaps he may be dream- 
ing of his friends in the Indian village. Yet he is in the 
rapids which are taking him over the cataract. He is not 
rowing toward it ; he. is sound asleep, the paddle lies in 
the bottom of that canoe. Without any effort of his own 
the current is taking him toward the fall. By and by the 
poor man wakes up, and he sees he is on the brink of the 
cataract. In a few moments he will plunge over. He gives 
an unearthly cry, and down he goes into the jaws of death. 
All here to-night, are in the current that is carrying them 
to the cataract — rushing on to judgment. A great many 
things in this world are not sure. You may buy grain, you 
may buy land, you are not sure whether the value will go up 
or down, but there is one thing that you are sure of, and that 
is death. " For it is appointed unto men once to die, but 
after this the judgment." After that the judgment. You 
can be sure of that. 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. 403 

Now the question is, are you ready ? I can imagine 
some of you saying : " I've got time enough, I don't pro- 
pose to settle this question just yet : there's a good many 
years before me." Is there a man who can say this ? Is 
there a man who can say, " To-morrow is mine ?" We are 
on the journey toward the judgment. Have you got a hope 
in the future, have you that which will take you over the 
.grave — have you that power which will carry you through 
death and judgment. You go to Graceland and summon 
up the dead. Bring them into this hall in the midst of this 
audience, with their ghastly winding-sheets, and see how 
.many of them died old. You will find that more of them 
died young than old. Why, whole populations are swept 
into eternity before they reach their allotted age. Instead 
of three score and ten the allotted age now-a-days is about 
30 years. My friends, we will soon be in eternity. What 
are you doing ? Are you reflecting. 

Some of you are. on the second round of the ladder. 
You are refusing. I was talking to a lady last night, and 
she said calmly, coolly, and deliberately, " I don't want Him ; 
I don't want Christ." " Do you really mean this ? " I ask- 
ed. " Yes, I don't want Him." I presume a few years ago 
she would not have said this, but she had got on the second 
round of the ladder; and some now despise it. If you get 
a tract upon the streets you just tear it up. You mock and 
make light of the God of your father and your mother. 
You have got on the bottom round of the ladder, and you 
despise the gift of God. My friends, that is the last round. 
A man has sunk pretty low when he despises the gift of 
God — when he hurls it back to God and says : " I will not 
have it." 

Now, I want to ask you this question. What are you 
going to do ? Will you think a few minutes, young men ? 
Will you stop for a few minutes and just think ? I wish I 
could wake this audience up for five minutes. Just ask 



4 4 GREAT JOY. 

yourslves where you are ; or, to make it more personal, 
" What am I ? Where am I going ? " A dying man called 
a Hindoo priest to his bedside, and asked him where he 
was going. The priest said he was going into an animal. 
" Well, after that where am I going ? " " Going into another 
animal." " Wliere next ? " " Into another animal ; " and he 
went on telling the man he would enter into this and that 
animal until he stopped. Then the man asked : "Where 
shall I go after that ? " the poor heathen priest could not' 
tell him. Ah, won't you settle this question to-night. 
" What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and 
lose his own soul ? " Suppose a man has the whole wealth 
of Chicago rolled at his feet, and then he dies, what has he 
gained ? 

A father was on his death-bed lately, and he called in 
his son. The boy was careless ; he would not take death 
into account. He wanted to enjoy the pleasures of life, 
and he took no heed of the future. The old man said : 
"My son, I want to ask you one favor, and that is, when 
I am dead promise me you will come into this room 
for five minutes every day for thirty days. You are to 
come alone, not to bring a book with you ; and sit here." 
The thoughtless young man promised to do it. The father 
died. 

The first thing when he went into that room that he 
thought of was his father's prayer — his father's words, and 
his father's God, and before the five minutes expired he 
was crying out, " God be merciful to me." It seems to me 
if I could get men to always ask themselves, " What is 
going to be my end ? " " Where am I going to spend eter- 
nity ? " it would not be long before they would come to 
Christ. You may be moralists, you may be proprietors of 
a successful business, you may be what the world calls suc- 
cessful business men. yet, " Where are you going to spend 
eternity ? " Can you tell me where you will be next year ? 



ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN. -405 

Can you tell me where you are going to be ten years hence ? 
Can you tell me ? I want to read a little notice on a card 
which is headed : " I have missed it at last." 

A few months ago, in New York, a physician called 
upon a young man who was ill. He sat for a little by the 
bedside, examining his patient, and then he honestly told 
him the sad intelligence that he had but a short time to 
live. The young man was astonished ; he did not expect 
it would come to that so soon. He forgot that death 
comes " in such an hour as ye think not." At length he 
looked up in the face of the doctor, and with a most des- 
pairing countenance, repeated the expression, " I have 
missed it — at last." " What have you missed ? " inquired 
the tender-hearted, sympathizing physician. " I have 
missed it — at last," again the young man replied. The 
doctor, not in the least comprehending what the poor 
young man meant, said: " My dear young man, will you 
be so good as to tell me what you — ? " He instantly 
interrupted, saying " Oh ! doctor, it is a sad story- — a sad 
— sad story that I have to tell. But I have missed it ! " 
" Missed what? " "Doctor, I have missed the salvation 
of my soul." " Oh ! say not so. It is not so. Do you 
remember the thief on the cross ? " " Yes, I remember 
the thief on the cross. And I remember that he never said 
to the Holy Spirit — Go thy way. But I did. And now he 
is saying to me, Go your wayT He lay gasping awhile, 
and looking up with a vacant, staring eye, he said : " I 
was awakened and was anxious about my soul a little time 
ago. But I did not want religion then. Something seemed 
to say to me: Don't postpone it. I knew I ought not to 
do it. I knew I was a great sinner and needed a Saviour. 
I resolved, however, to dismiss the subject for the present. 
Yet I could not get my own consent to do it, until I had 
promised that I would take it up again, at a time not re- 
mote and more favorable. I bargained away, insulted, 



4 o6 GREAT JOY. 

and grieved away the Holy Spirit. I never thought of 
coming to this. I meant to have religion, and make my 
salvation sure. And now I have missed it — at last." 
" You remember," said the doctor, " that there were some 
who came at the eleventh hour.!' " My eleventh hour," 
he rejoined, " was when I had that call of the Spirit. I 
have had none since — I shall not have. I am given over 
to be lost." " Not lost," said the doctor, " you may yet 
be saved." No — not saved — never. He tells me I may 
go my way now. I know it — I feel it, feel it here, laying 
his hand upon his heart. Then he burst out in despairing 
agony : " Oh, I have missed it ! I have sold my soul for 
nothing — a feather — a straw — undone forever ! " This 
was said with such unutterable, indescribable despond- 
ency, that no words were said in reply. After lying a few 
moments, he raised his head, and looking all around the 
room as if for some desired object — turning his eyes in 
every direction — then burying his face in the pillow, he 
again exclaimed, in agony and horror : " Oh, I have 
missed it at last ! " and he died. 

Dear friends, you may not hear my voice again. I may 
be speaking to you for the last time. You may never come 
into this Tabernacle again, and I beg of you as a friend, 
and as a brother, do not go out of this Tabernacle without 
salvation. Let this night be the night that you will ac- 
cept everlasting life. Let this be the night on which 
you will cry from the depth of your heart, " Let me have 
Christ, let me have salvation." " Though it cost me my 
right hand or my right eye, I will have Christ to-night." 
May that be the cry of every one here to-night, and salva- 
tion be accepted for time and eternity by every soul in this 
building. May God wake up every soul here to-night, and 
when that summons comes may you go to triumph over 
the grave and so enter into a glorious immortality. Let 
us unite in prayer. 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JACOB. 



The key to all Jacob's difficulties will be found in the 
twentieth chapter of Matthew, from which Mr. Moody read 
an illustration. It is the story of the laborers in the vine- 
yard. The thought is in the second verse. The first men 
hired agreed to the bargain. The men would not go until 
the owner of the vineyard had made a bargain with them. 
He told them that he would pay them what was right. 
They got a penny. He gave them the lawful wages. Is 
that all you're going to give me? they probably said. 
Jacob was all the time making bargains. The Christians 
who are making bargains with the Lord do not get as much 
as those who trust Him. It does not pay to make bar- 
gains with the Lord. Jacob is a twin brother of most of 
us. Where you will find one Joseph or one Daniel you will 
find a hundred Jacobs. We are not willing, all of us, to 
take God at His word and trust Him. There is a strong 
contrast between the character of Joseph and Jacob. The 
one trusted God implicitly, but Jacob wanted to trust Him 
no farther than he could see God. There would have 
been a great deal of murmuring if Jacob had been, thrown 
into jail in Egypt. Jacob no doubt got a great deal of his 
weakness from his mother. There was a division in that 
home. Isaac favored Esau, and Rebekah favored Jacob. 
Such dissensions are just the thing to stir up the old Adam 
in the man. A mother and a father have no right to take 
this course. Rebekah plans continually to keep Jacob at 
home. The very thing that Rebekah tries to achieve, in 

407 



4 o8 GREAT JOY. 

that she fails. By nature Esau was the better of the two. 
If such a mean, contemptible nature as Jacob's can be 
saved, then there is hope for all of us. The Lord prom- 
ised to Jacob from the top of the ladder what he should 
have. Jacob gets up and says if God will be with me and 
keep and clothe me, then shall the Lord be my God. 
What a low, contemptible idea he had. God had promised 
him all from Dan to Beersheba. That's the difficulty with 
the people at the present time. If God will bless us in our 
basket and store we shall have him for our God. We find 
Jacob after this in Haran driving bargains all the time, and 
the worst of it is he gets beat every time. He had to work 
seven years for his wife, and then gets another woman in 
her place. He gets paid back in his own coin. We must 
not think that God will allow us to deceive without 
punishing us for it. He forgot all the vows he had made 
at Bethel, but God did not forget His. Some of God's 
promises are unconditional. The promise he made at 
Bethel was unconditional. God chose Jacob rather than 
Esau. Some people say that God hated Esau before he 
was born. This is not the teaching of Scripture, even 
though one of the minor prophets long years after men- 
tioned it. God says to Jacob after he had been in Haran 
for so many years, " I am the God of Bethel ; arise and 
dwell there." He ought to have been proud, and instead 
of leaving Haran like a prince, he steals away like a thief. 
He starts off, and his uncle and father-in-law pursue. 
God took care of him ; God was going to keep His vows, 
andlthere is no doubt that had not God interfered Jacob 
would have been slain. We find that Jacob stays behind 
like a miserable coward, after he had sent his effects away. 
A man out of communication with God is a coward always. 
There was a man wrestled with Jacob. It was Christ. 
When did he prevail ? When his thigh was out of joint all 
he could do was to hold on and get the blessing. The 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF JACOB. 409 

man who is the lowest down is the man that God lifts up 
the highest. The man that has the greatest humility will 
be the most exalted. A great many say that Jacob was a 
different man. Would to God his thigh had been left 
out of joint so that there was no more of the flesh in him. 
The next thing, we find Jacob and Esau embracing, and 
we would suppose that he would be filled with gratitude. 
But no ; he goes down to Shechem and builds an altar and 
calls it by a high-sounding name. Jacob in Shecham with 
this altar with a high-sounding name was no better than he 
was in Haran without an altar. It would be a good day if 
we people in Chicago would bury our idols, rum-bottles, 
tobacco, and cigars, beneath an oak in Shechem. The 
trouble is that we have slipped down to Shechem. There 
his sons fell. It is when men go down to Haran and 
Shechem, instead of staying in Bethel, that thev fall into 
sin. Let the church of God come out and stand before the 
world free from idols, there would be no need for idols. 
The only thing that keeps back the blessing of God are 
the church members. He built an altar finally at Bethel. 
He said that he would go to Bethel and build an altar to 
his God, as if the Shechem- altar was no altar. He called 
it El-Bethel. Just the moment he came to Bethel the Lord 
God met him, and just as soon as the church leaves Shec- 
hem and comes to Bethel, then the Lord God will meet it. 
The next thing we hear is the saddest episode in Jacob's 
life — the death of Rachel, his favorite wife. His sons go 
back to Shechem and hunt up the old idols. His sons 
bring him back news from there that his beloved son was 
dead. Do you see how he begins to reap the sins of his 
own earlier days ? For twenty long years he mourned that 
beloved boy. He deceived his own father, and his own 
sons deceived him. What a bitter life. What was Jacob's 
dying testimony to Pharoah ? It would take ten thousand 
Jacobs to get one convert like Pharoah. " Few and evil," 



4 io GREAT JOY. 

Jacob said, " had his days been." He started with a lie in 
his mouth. He died in exile. He died in Egypt, not in 
the land God promised him. He would not let God choose 
for him. He was saved by fire, or as Job said, by the skin 
of his teeth. We must walk less by sight and more by 
faith. It is safer for God to choose and to do the plan- 
ning. It is for us to be satisfied with God's writ. Let us 
be satisfied and wait upon him, saying : " Thy will be done, 
and not ours.° 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS, II. 



I have had a little trouble to find a text for to-night. 
All last night and this morning I was trying to find one, 
but could not. This morning, however, in coming out of 
Farwell Hall prayer-meeting, a mother, whom I have 
known for a great many years, came to me with tears run- 
ning down her cheeks, and, with grief, nearly sinking to the 
floor. " O ! Mr. Moody," she said, " have these meetings 
to close and not one of my children saved ? " and the 
thought flashed on my mind, I have got a text, and it is in 
the ninth chapter of Mark, which we have read : " Bring 
him unto me." The disciples had failed to cure this man's 
son. James and John and Peter had been with the Master 
upon the mount, where they had seen the transfiguration, 
and when they came down from that scene they found" a 
great company around His disciples, asking them questions. 
I suppose the skeptics were laughing and ridiculing the re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ and its teachers. His disciples had 
failed — they had not been able to cast out the dumb spirit, 
and the father said, when asked a question, " I have 
brought my son to your disciples, and they cannot heal 
him," and He said, " Bring him unto Me." When he was 
brought, the devil threw him clown. The moment the poor 
deaf and dumb man came into the presence of Christ the 
spirit within began to tear at him. This is often the case 
now. Sometimes when there is a good deal of prayer going 
up for people they become worse. When the Spirit begins 
with men, instead of getting better they sometimes become 
worse, and it seems as if God did not answer prayer ; but 

4ii 



4 i2 GREAT JOY. 

this is only a sign that God is at work. A mother was 
praying for and giving good counsel to a loved son lately, 
and he said if ever she spoke to him about religion again 
he would leave the house. Whenever the word was pre- 
sented to him, he became worse. That mother did not 
take her son to the preachers, but thank God, she took 
him to Christ. She didn't take him to the church, she did 
not take him to her friends — she knew that if he was to be 
saved it was only by Jesus Christ. She took him to the 
Master, and the result was that within forty-eight hours 
after saying this to his mother, that wayward boy was 
brought to the feet of Jesus. So if any have been praying 
earnestly and faithfully for their sons without success, my 
dear friends, get your eyes off the church, off friends, off 
everything else but Him, and let your prayer go up day 
and night, and it will be heard, because we have God's 
word for it. An answer is sure. We are not sure whether 
the sun will rise to-morrow morning, but we are sure that 
He will answer our prayers. It is sure. If we hold on to 
God in prayer and find that we don't get our supplications 
answered in a month — in a year — we are to hold on till the 
blessing comes. Now, it may be that this mother, like a 
great many mothers, has been looking to the prayers here 
— looking to what has been going on in these meetings, 
and has been saying, " There are so many Christian 
people praying, and surely God will bless my boys owing 
to these prayers." Now, we must get our eyes from off 
multitudes, from sermons, from others' prayers, and let all 
our expectations be only from Him, and a blessing will 
come. These meetings have been very profitable, and 
during the weeks past I have noticed that those fathers 
and mothers who have gone out after other people's children, 
have had their own wonderfully blessed. Whatever good 
you do to other people's children the reflex will come back 
upon yours. It may be that that mother was very selfish, 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS, II. 413 

and wanted her sons blessed only; she hasn't, perhaps, 
been trying to bring others under the influence of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Every day fathers and mothers come 
to me with tears in their eyes — fathers and mothers who 
have gone out after other people's children — testifying how 
their children have been blessed. A mother who has been 
working for Him here, told me that her five children — every 
one of them — had been blessed by these meetings, and I 
suppose that if 1 put it to the vote many parents here 
would stand up and testify as to the answers received to 
prayers and personal efforts for their children. I was very 
much surprised lately to see an old citizen coming into 
our meetings with a wayward son by his side night after 
night. Every evening he was to be seen with him, and 
last Monday evening he got up and told what God had 
done for him in answer to personal effort. That father 
got woke up, and did not rest till he was answered. 

Now it seems to me, just as we are leaving this city, 
that a great many parents are beginning to wake up to the 
fact that these meetings are about to be closed and their 
children have not been blessed. When we were in Great 
Britain, in Manchester, a father woke up to the fact that we 
were going away from that town. Just as we were about 
closing he got wonderfully interested in the meetings, and 
when we had gone to another town he said to his wife : 
" I have made a mistake : I should have taken you and 
the children and the servants to those meetings. Now I'm 
going to take my son from business, and take you and the 
children and the servants to the town where they are being 
held now and take a house and have you all attend the 
meetings." He came and took a house and sat down de- 
termined to remain there till all had been blessed. I re- 
member him coming to me one night soon after arriving 
aud saying, " Mr. Moody, my wife has got converted : 
thank God for that. If I get nothing else I am well paid." 



4H GREATJOY. 

A few nights after he came in and said his son had become 
converted, and then told me one of the servants had been 
brought under the influence : and so he went on until the 
last day we were to be in that town arrived, and he came 
to me and said the last one of the family had yielded him- 
self up to Christ, and he went back to his native city re- 
joicing. When we we were in London the father and son 
came up and assisted in the work, and I don't know a hap- 
pier man in all Europe than that one. How many parents 
living almost within sight of this building have felt no in- 
terest in these meetings ; yet they know their children are 
hastening down to death and ruin. Business must be at- 
tended to : time is very precious, and they have gone to 
waste, in order to bring their sons and daughters under 
religious influences, and the result will be that many and 
many a family in this city will see dark days and bitter 
hours, and many a parent will go down to their graves on 
account of wayward children. Now, why won't you even 
in the closing hours of these meetings — why won't parents 
wake up and bring their children to Christ ; just hold them 
up in the arms of their faith, and pray, " Lord Jesus, save 
these children that God has given me ; grant, O God, that 
they may be with me in glory." 

It may be that some father or mother is saying : " I 
have not been living right myself in God's sight ; so how 
can I talk to my children of Him ?" It seems to me the 
best thing to do under those circumstances is to make a 
confession. I knew a father who a few days ago told his 
children that he had not been living right. The tears rol- 
led down his cheeks as he asked their forgiveness, "Why," 
said one child, " do you ask us for forgiveness ? Why, 
father, you have always been kind to us ?" "I know I have, 
my child," he answered, "but I have not been doing my 
whole duty toward you : I've never had a family altar: I 
have paid more heed to your temporal welfare than to your 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS, II 415 

spiritual : but I am going to have a family altar now." He 
took down his Bible and began there, and it wasn't long 
before his children were touched. Suppose you haven't 
been living in accordance with the gospel : why not make 
an open confession to your wife — to. your children — set up 
a family altar, and pray for your children, and it will not 
be long before you will be blessed. Let us come to Him. 
Let us look straight away from the churches ; let us look 
from every influence to only the Master Himself, and Jet 
His words ring in the soul of every parent here to-night : 
" Bring Him unto Me." Have you got a wayward son ? 
He may be in some distant State or foreign land, and by 
the last news you received of him was rushing headlong 
down to ruin. My friend, you can reach him — you can 
reach him by intercession at the throne. A short time 
after I got here I received a letter from Scotland. I haven't 
time to read it. The letter was sent to a minister and he 
forwarded it to me. It was the gushing of a loving father. 
He asked us to look out for his boy, whose name was Wil- 
lie. That name touched my heart, because it was the 
name of my own boy. I asked Mr. Sawyer to try and get 
on the track of that boy some weeks ago, but all his efforts 
were fruitless. But away off in Scotland that Christian 
father was holding that boy up to God in prayer, and last 
Friday, in yonder room, among those asking for prayer was 
that Willie, and he told me a story there that thrilled my 
heart, and testified how the prayers of that father and mo- 
ther in that far-off land had been instrumental in affecting 
his salvation. Don't you think the heart of that father and 
mother will rejoice ? He said he was rushing madly to 
destruction, but there was a power in those prayers that 
saved that boy. Don't you think, my friends, that God 
hears and answers prayers, and shall we not lift up our 
voices to Him in prayer that He will bless the children 
He has given us. 



41 6 GREAT JOY. 

You know how Elisha was blessed by the Shunammite 
woman, and she was blessed in return by a child. You 
know how the child died, and how she resolved to go at 
once to the man of God. I can imagine Elisha sitting on 
Mount Carmel, and seeing that woman afar off, and saying 
to his servant, " Do you see that woman ? I think I know 
her face — it is the Shunammite, now that I see her face. 
Go run and ask her ' is it well with her.' " Off the servant 
runs, and when the servant came to her, she said, " It is 
well." Although her child was dead she said " It is well." 
She knew that the man who gave her the child could raise 
it up. She runs up to the Master and falls down, putting 
her arms about His feet ; and the servant tried to put her 
away. But Elisha wouldn't let him. He says to the ser- 
vant : " Here, take this staff and go and lay it upon the 
face of the dead child," and tells the servant to go home 
with her ; but she won't leave the man of God. She doesn't 
want to lean upon the staff or the servant. ' It wasn't the 
servant or the staff that she wanted, but the man of God 
that she wanted with her. " You come with me," she says. 
"You can raise it up." She would not leave Him till He 
came to her house. He went in and closed the door and 
prayed to God that the child would be restored, and then 
lay upon the child, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands 
to hands, and the child began to sneeze, and there was the 
child of the Shunammite woman raised up. Bear in mind 
that it was not the servant nor the staff, but the Master 
Himself that saved the child. My friends, if we lean upon 
the Master we shall not be disappointed. The moment 
that child was brought to the Master the wish of that 
woman was granted, and if we as parents bring our child- 
ren to Him, we shall not be disappointed. 

But there is another thing I want to call your attention 
to. We don't fast enough. This fasting don't mean fast- 
ing from meat, as many people think necessary. It seems 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS, II. 417 

to me if I had a wayward hoy I should put myself at the 
feet of Christ, and fast a little, by keeping away from 
amusements, from theatres. I find a great many worldly 
Christians going off into the theatres. They say, " I only 
go for a little relaxation ; of course I could stop going 
whenever I like, and needn't be influenced by them ; I 
only go occasionally." A worldly Christian said to me, 
" I only go once a month." " Well," said I, " how about 
your boy ; he may not have the will-power you have, and 
your example in going only once a month may only be the 
means of his going there all the time." A man, my friends, 
may have great will-power, yet his son may have very little. 
And therefore a little fasting in this regard would be good 
for our children. We should abstain from all pleasures 
that are liable to be hurtful to our children. If you fathers 
and mothers want your children to keep from evil influ- 
ences you ought to keep away from them yourselves. If 
they see you indulging in these pleasures, they think they 
are on the right side by doing the same thing. A young 
man says, " I don't want to be any better than my father ; 
and he goes to the theaters." Now, there are young men 
who have come into the inquiry rooms one night and the 
next night have gone off to the theaters. I dort't know if 
a man with the spirit of God should go there. These men 
may one night be here and the next night may go off to 
some amusement, where they hear as a waltz, " What Shall 
the Harvest Be," or, " Almost Persuaded." How Christ- 
ian men and women can go to such places as that, I can- 
not conceive. If it is not sacrilege, then nothing is. 
What can those worldly Christians expect from their child- 
ren if they frequent such places ? I think the time has 
come for a little fasting. When Christ died it was to sep- 
arate His church from the world, and how can a man who 
has consecrated himself as a child of God, go back to the 
world without trampling that blood under his feet ? When 

27 



4 i8 GREAT JOY. 

will the day come when a man of God shall make known by 
his conversation, by his actions, by his general appearance, 
that he has been freed from the curse of the world ? 

Then another thing. It seems to me that every man 
should have a family altar in his house. And if we can- 
not deliver prayers, let us take up each of our children 
by name ; let us ask that Johnny, while playing with his 
schoolmates, may be kept from temptation. Why, we 
forget that a little child's temptations are just as much to 
him as ours are to us. The boy at school has just as 
heavy trials as we have. And then pray for Mary. If 
she is in trouble bring it out and pray that God may give 
her power to overcome any besetting sin that she may 
have in her heart. I believe the day has come when we 
should have more religion in our families, more family 
altars. I believe that the want of this is doing more injury 
to the growth of our children than anything else. Why, 
long before the church was in a building, it was in the 
homes of the people. We can make the family altar a 
source of happiness. By it w 7 e can make the home the 
pleasantest place in the world. Let us, when we get up in 
the morning, bright and fresh, have some family devotions. 
If a man runs down town immediately on getting up, and 
don't get home until five o'clock, and then has family de- 
votions, the children will be tired and so go sound asleep. 
And it seems to me that we should give a little more time 
to our children and call them around the altar in the morn- 
ing. Or suppose we ask them to recite a verse, to recite a 
portion of a hymn — it must not necessarily be a long one 
— and, after that, have some singing, if the children can 
sing. Do not be in a hurry to get it out of the way, as if 
the service was a nuisance ; take a little time. Let them 
sing some religious hymns. The singing need not be all 
psalms, but there should be a few simple religious hymns. 
Let the little children be free from all restraint. Then pray 
for each of them. 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS, II. 



419 



Another thing. It seems to me that we devote too little 
time to studying the Sunday school lesson. You know now 
we have a uniform lesson all over the country. That les- 
son should be taken up by parents and they should try to 
explain it to their children. But how many ever think of 
this — how many parents ever take the trouble to inquire 
even as to the kind of Sunday school teachers who instruct 
their children. And then we should take our children 
into the churches with us. It seems to me we are retro- 
grading at the present day. A great many of our children 
are never seen in the churches at all. Even if the sermon 
don't touch them they are getting into good habits. And 
then if the minister says a weak thing don't take it up, 
don't pick it out or speak of it before the children, because 
you are bringing your minister into disrespect with your 
children. If you have got a minister whom you cannot 
respect, you ought to get out of that church as soon as you 
can. Encourage them to bring the text home ; let the 
w r ord be spoken to them at all times, in season and out of 
season. If the great Bible truths sink down into their 
hearts, and the fruit will be precious ; wisdom will blossom 
upon them, and they will become useful in the church and 
in the world. Now, how many parents will not take the 
trouble to explain to the children what the minister 
preaches. Take your children into the pews and let them 
hear the word of God, and if they do not understand it 
show it to them. You know the meat they require is the 
same as we feed on ; but if the pieces are too large for 
them we must cut it up for them — cut it finer. If the ser- 
mon is a hard one, cut it into thin slices so that they can 
take it. There was a time when our little boy did not like 
to go to church, and would get up in the morning and say 
to his mother, "What day is to-morrow?" " Tuesday." 
"Next day?" "Wednesday." "Next day?" "Thurs- 
day j " and so on, till he came to the answer, " Sunday." 



42 o GREAT JOY. 

" Dear me," he would moan. I said to his mother, "We 
cannot have our boy grow up to hate Sunday in that way ; 
that will never do." That is the way I used to feel when 
I was a boy. I used to look upon Sunday with a certain 
amount of dread. Very few kind words were associated 
with that day. I don't know that the minister ever said a 
kind thing or ever even put his hand on my head. I don't 
know that the minister even noticed me, unless it was 
when I was asleep in the gallery, and he woke me up. 
This kind of thing won't do ; we must make the Sunday 
the most attractive day of the week ; not a day to be 
dreaded ; but a day of pleasure. Well, the mother took 
the work up with this boy. Bless those mothers in their 
work with the children. Sometimes I feel as if I would 
rather be the mother of John Wesley or Martin Luther or 
John Knox than have all the glories in the world. Those 
mothers who are faithful with the children God has given 
them, will not go unrewarded. My wife went to work and 
took those bible stories and put those blessed truths in a 
light that the child could comprehend, and soon the feel- 
ing of dread for the Sabbath with the boy was the other 
way. " What day's to-morrow ? " he would ask. " Sunday." 
" I am glad." And if we make these bible truths interest- 
ing — break them up in some shape so that these children 
can get at them, then they will begin to enjoy them. Now, 
there's no influence like a mother's, and if the mothers 
will give a little time to the children in this way, and read 
them some Bible story, or tell them it in a simple way, it will 
not be long before the child knows the Bible from beginning 
to end. I know a little boy, 1 1 years of age, who got up 
last Monday in the meeting, and told how he found Christ. 
His father began by telling him Bible stories, and now he 
knows them as well as I do. The little fellow of 1 1 years 
is quite a preacher. Let us pick out the stories that will 
interest them from Genesis to Revelation, and that is the 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS, II. 4 2i 

way to bring our children to Christ. It will fill them with 
the gospel — fill them with Christ. They will soon be so 
full of Jesus that when an infidel comes to unseat their 
faith, he will find no room for infidelity. 

Now, the New Year's day is coming on. I haven't much 
time to speak about that now : but let me ask what are you 
going to do when the young men come to your homes on 
that day ? Are you going to set wine before them. Are 
you going to tempt the sons of others to go astray ? Don't 
offer them, I implore you, that hellish cup ; don't be the 
instruments to lead the children of others away from the 
God of their fathers. I hope that in this city this infernal 
custom will soon be swept away. The idea of having some 
of our best young men reeling on the streets beastly drunk 
on the first day of the year is revolting, and yet there are 
Christians who, when young men visit them on New Year's 
day, just urge the cup on them — press them to take it. 
They have got some new kind of wine, and they want them 
to taste it, and urge the young man just to take a little 
and the young man hasn't got will — hasn't got back-bone 
enough to resist the temptation ; hasn't the power to say 
no. He goes to another house, and the same thing is re- 
peated, and so on, until at night the poor fellow goes home 
intoxicated and breaks the heart of some mother. Remem- 
ber when you offer the cup if it is not to your own boy it is 
to somebody else's boy. I have a great respect for that old 
woman who with ribbons flying ran into a crowded 
thoroughfare and rescued a child from under a wagon. 
Some one asked her, " Is it your child ? " " No," she re- 
plied, " but it is some one's child." She had a mother's 
heart, and bear in mind when a young man comes to you, 
as you put the cup before him — remember he is some other 
one's child. God has given us a charge, not only in look- 
ing to the salvation of our own children, but we have to 
see to the salvation of the children of others. 



422 GREAT JOY. 

Now, let me say a word to the unfaithful fathers. At 
the close of this meeting, if you have been unfaithful to the 
children God has given you, why not stay and then go 
home and make an honest confession to your children. If 
you have a boy who is a reckless young man — if he is a 
drunkard, ask yourselves, " Have I done all that I could ; 
have I ever set before him the truth of Christ ? " Not long 
ago a young man went home late. He had been in the 
habit of going home late, and the father began to mistrust 
that he had gone astray. He told his wife to go to bed, 
and dismissed the servants, and said he would sit up till 
his son came home. The boy came home drunk, and the 
father in his anger gave him a push into the street and told 
him never to enter his house again, and shut the door. He 
went into the parlor and sat down, and began to think : 
" Well, I may be to blame for that boy's conduct, after all. 
I have never prayed with him ; I have never warned him 
of the dangers of the world." And the result of his reflec- 
tions was that he put on his overcoat and hat, and started 
out to find his boy. The first policeman he met he asked 
eagerly, " Have you seen my boy ? " " No." On he went 
till he met another. " Have you seen anything of my 
son ? " He ran from one to another all that night, but not 
until the morning did he find him. He took him by the 
arm and led him home, and kept him till he was sober. 
Then he said : " My dear boy, I want you to forgive me ; 
I've never prayed for you ; I've never lifted my heart to 
God for you ; I've been the means of leading you astray, 
and I want your forgiveness." The boy was touched, and 
what was the result ? Within twenty-four hours that son 
became a convert, and gave up that cup. It may be that 
some father has had a wayward son. Go to God, and on 
your knees confess it. Let the voice of Jesus sink down 
in your heart to-night. ik Bring him unto me." A father 
whom I have known for many years said to me this after- 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS, II 



423 



noon, with the tears trickling down his cheeks : " I want 
to tell you something that I have never told in public. 
Forty-three years ago, when I was five years old, I was 
sick with scarlet fever, and my mother knelt down and 
prayed to God if it was His will, that her boy might be 
spared. My father was a drinking man, and she also 
prayed that I might be kept safe from the cup. My 
mother died early, but my mother's prayer has followed me 
all those years, and I have never touched one drop of 
liquor." Last night a young man, the son of that man, got 
up and told his experiences. Yes, the mother's prayer for 
her little boy, five years old, was answered. That prayer 
was answered. Why shall we not lift up our hearts in prayer 
for our children I Let us plead day and night till God 
saves them — till he brings them into the ark of safety. May 
the God of Israel save our children. 

I remember being in the camp and a man came to me 
and said, " Mr. Moody, when the Mexican war began I 
wanted to enlist. My mother, seeing I was resolved, said 
if I became a Christian I might go. She pleaded and 
prayed that I might become a Christian, but I wouldn't. I 
said when the war was over I would become a Christian, 
but not till then. All her -pleading was in vain, and at 
last, when I was going away, she took out a watch and 
said : ' My son, your father left this to me when he died. 
Take it, and I want you to remember that every day at 
twelve o'clock your mother will be praying for you.' Then 
she gave me her Bible, and marked out passages, and put 
a few different references in the fly-leaf. , I took the watch, 
and it was twelve o'clock. I had been gone four months, 
but I remembered that my mother at that hour was pray- 
ing for me. Something prompted me to ask the officer to 
relieve me for a little, and I stepped behind a tree away 
out on those plains of Mexico, and cried to the God of my 
mother to save me." My friends, God saved him, and he 



424 GREAT JOY. 

went through the Mexican war, " and now," he said, K I 
have enlisted again to see if I can do any good for my 
Master's cause,'"' and the old man was down among the 
soldiers there preaching Christ. My friends, let us believe 
that God answers prayer, and let us not cease our suppli- 
cation till salvation comes to our children, and all our little 
ones are brought into the ark of safety. Let us all unite 
in prayer. 



THE LIFE OF PETER. 



The first glimpse we had of him was when Andrew 
called him. He was first called as a disciple, not as an 
apostle. The second call was when he was called to the 
work of the ministry. The next glimpse we had was re- 
lated in the fifth chapter of the gospel of Luke, when the 
Lord spoke to the people the words of God from the boat 
at the sea-side, and then follows the miraculous draught of 
fishes. Then it was that Peter said : " Depart from me, 
for I am a sinful man, O God." Then Jesus said that 
thereafter Peter would catch men. The thought he wanted 
to call attention to was, that when Peter was called he 
didn't leave his work until called twice. There were too 
many unprepared men in the Lord's work ; there were too 
many men made ministers in the world to-day. He said 
this because there were a good many young men, young 
converts, who were looking to the work of the ministry and 
thinking they were called to that. John Wesley used to 
say to young men, candidates for the ministry, when they 
preached, " Did you make any one mad ? " " No." " Did 
you convert anybody?" and then they would say "No." 
" Then," Wesley said, " that's a very good evidence you're 
not called." Men need to have souls before they begin 
this work. The Lord first made these men to go to the 
lake and take a great haul of fish, and then when they 
were called they had something to leave. They didn't 
have much to leave, but they left what they had. What 
had they to leave ? A few broken nets and a haul of fish. 
And that's the way with a great many Christians of the 



426 GREAT JOY. 

present day ; they didn't want to leave their little draft of 
fishes and their broken nets. The next time we get a 
glimpse of Peter is in the fourteenth chapter of Matthew, 
where the Lord tells Peter to walk on the water. Here we 
find Peter in " Doubting Castle." And that was when 
Peter got his eye off the Lord, and he saw the waves and 
heard the wind, then his eyes wandered away from Christ. 
But Peter's prayer was to the point ; it didn't begin with a 
long preamble, which would have put him forty feet under 
water before the Lord heard it. But it was to the point : 
" Lord save me ; I perish." Again, in the sixteenth chap- 
ter we find that Christ is saying : " Whom say men that I 
am?" and then he asked Peter, and Peter said: "Thou 
art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." This shows 
the power there was in confessing Christ. Peter was a 
true Trinitarian ; he got square on the rock. Again, we 
find him indulging in man-worship, the first beginning of 
Rome. This was on the occasion of the Transfiguration, 
on the mountain. Peter said : " God, let us make three 
tabernacles ; " and as soon as he said this, why, God 
just snatched Moses and Elias away, and left them 
only Jesus. There was too much of this minister-worship, 
of this church-worship at the present day. This was illus- 
trated in the Twenty-second chapter of Revelations, ninth 
verse, where the angel said, " Worship God." If Christ 
was not the Son of God, then Christians were the greatest 
idolators that ever lived. Again we find Peter in the 
twenty-sixth chapter of Matthew, at the twenty-third verse, 
where Peter's fall was recited. He became self-confident 
and spiritually proud. The Lord couldn't use him until he 
had been humbled, and here he stood up among the Lord's 
disciples, just as though he was all-powerful. This lesson 
of humility must be learned by every man whom God uses. 
"Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall." The 



THE LIFE OF PETER. 427 

greatest Bible characters fell because they failed in 
their strongest points. Moses was not allowed to see 
the promised land, and there were Saul and David and 
Jacob who fell also, and Peter too, at the very time when 
he was boasting of his own power. I am always sure that 
young converts who say they're safe are- where the devil 
will trip them up. Again, Peter was asleep in the garden 
when the Lord told him to watch. This was the time 
when Satan had these Christians in the churches asleep, 
and then troubles came in the churches. Then came the 
next step — " He followed Him afar off." And this was the 
gradual downward course. No one would find a Christian 
man in the theater; those Christians who are in such 
places are all asleep. Men of the world said they liked 
" liberal Christians," but these men were never sent for by 
dying men. They would never find a card-playing, a 
smoking and chewing, a horse-racing and a dancing Chris- 
tian who amounted to anything. Then the next downward 
step was when Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of the 
High Priest's servant ; and afterwards, Peter denied the 
Lord, first to the young maid, and then to another ser 
vant. Here were two denials by the very man who but 
a few hours before had said he would never betray or 
forsake the Lord. Then, again, the third time the servant 
said, " Thy speech betrayeth thee," but Peter answered 
with oaths that he never knew Him. It's hard for a Chris- 
tian to forget the speech of the Lord's people, even after 
he has long departed from the ways of God and Christ. But 
one look brought Peter back, one word undid all that 
Satan had been doing for hours ; and he went out and 
wept bitterly. One of the first words that Christ said 
after the crucifixion and resurrection was : " Tell the 
disciples and Peter," and Peter had a personal interview, 
with the Lord. And then, when Christ was leaving him, 



428 GREAT JOY. 

He asked him, " Lovest thou Me more than these ? " But 
Peter didn't answer ; he had learned humility, and after 
the Lord had asked him again, Peter, now humble, already 
meet for the Master's use, said, " Lord, Thou knowest." 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN, II. 



You will find my text this evening in the sixth chapter of 
Galatians, 7th, 8th and 9th verses : " Be not deceived ; God 
is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh 
reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of 
the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary- 
in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint 
not." You who were here last Wednesday night remem- 
ber that we had for our text, " Their rock is not as our rock, 
even our enemies themselves being judges," and then we 
tried to find a text which every one would admit was true. 
I think that we have one to-night that no infidel, no skep- 
tic, or deist can attack. There are some passages which 
we do not have to prove by the Word of God, but merely 
by our own experience. Your own lives will prove many 
passages in scripture. You can take up the daily papers 
and see them fulfilled under your own eyes. This is one 
of them. Perhaps there has not been a text of Scripture 
run out in this Tabernacle as this one has. Night after 
night we have said something about it ; night after night 
Mr. Sankey has sung out, " Whatsoever a man soweth 
that shall he also reap." My friends, we cannot quote it 
too often. We want to quote it, and preach it till it gets 
down to the hearts of the people. Now it is very natural 
to be deceived ? I suppose there is not a man or woman here 
but who has been deceived by his or her most intimate 
friends. You have been deceived by your own friends, 
and you have been deceived by your enemies, and how 

429 



430 GREAT JOY. 

many could rise up here and say they have not been de- 
ceived by themselves ? How many of us have found our 
own heart more treacherous than anything else ? How 
many of us have not found the truth of that passage, " The 
heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately 
wicked." We can be deceitful to each other, to our friends 
and to ourselves, but bear in mind we cannot deceive God. 
How often does man find that Satan had deceived him ? 
But has he ever found God deceiving him ? I have never 
found a man who has said that he has been or that he has 
heard of anybody whom God has deceived. How many 
times has man said he has been deceived by his fellows — by 
his own treacherous heart ; and our experience in this direc- 
tion only shows that we cannot rely upon man, upon our- 
selves, but only upon God. 

Now, it is a law of nature that if a man sows he will reap 
what he sows. If a man sows water-melons, he don't look 
for cauliflowers ; if a man sows potatoes, he don't look for 
cabbages ; if he sows onions, he don't look for corn. If 
he plants potatoes, he expects potatoes; if he sows corn, 
he looks for corn ; or wheat, he expects to reap wheat. So 
in the natural world, a man expects to reap what he sows. 
If a man learns a carpenter's or a builder's trade, he ex- 
pects to put up buildings for a living. If a man toils and 
studies hard for a profession — if he is a lawyer, he expects 
to practise law. He don't expect to have to preach the 
Gospel for a living. He has been sowing for years, and 
he expects to reap. As a man sows, so he expects to reap. 
This the law in the natural world, and so it is with the 
spiritual : " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall 
be comforted ; " " Blessed are the peacemakers, for they 
shall be called the children of God;" " Blessed are they 
which hunger and thirst for righteousness' sake " — why ? 
because they shall get rich ? no — "for they shall be filled." 
Now, you will see that a certain result is the product of 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN*. 431 

certain conditions. This is the law, which you will find 
carried out all through the world, in natural and spiritual 
things. If a man is a thief, you expect to see him come to an 
ignominious end. If a man is drunken and dissipated, we 
look, as a natural consequence of his dissipation, to see 
him go to ruin. Yet men themselves don't see this ; their 
eyes are closed to their folly. A friend who was coming 
down with me to-night said : " When I look back, I see 
that I started wrong when I came here. It seems as if I 
must have been blind. I did not see this till within the 
last two or three weeks." My friends, that's what Satan 
does with a man — he just blinds him, and when he has got 
a man blinded he does anything he wants with him. It is 
very hard to make men understand this simple truth, that 
they will have to reap what they sow, especially young men 
from seventeen to twenty-one. That, you know, is the ugly 
age. There is more trouble with them then than at any 
other stage. I remember when I was at that age. I knew 
a good deal more than my mother or any of my friends. 
You take a young man at that age, and you'll find he knows 
a great deal more than his father, his grandfather, or even 
his great-grandfather, all put together. " He is wise in 
his own conceit." it is during that ugly age that charac- 
ters are forming for good or evil ; and bear in mind, you 
young men, that " Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 
also reap." If a man sows tares, he has got to reap them. 
It may not be to-morrow, or next week, or next year, but 
the time of reaping will assuredly come, and when the reap- 
ing time comes you will moan bitterly ; then you will like 
to change places with those Christians whom you despise 
now. When the reaping time comes, you would give a 
good deal if you could exchange places with the humblest- 
looking Christian. , I suppose that Cain would give a good 
deal to exchange places with Abel to-night. Do you think 
Pilate would not like to change places with Elijah, with 



432 GREAT JOY. 

Obadiah, or Peter to-night ? Don't you think the Emperor 
Nero would like to exchange places now with Paul ? Paul is 
reaping what he sowed, and so is Nero. All through Scrip- 
ture you can see the proof of this text. Don't you think 
that the rich man at whose door the beggar Lazarus lay 
would like to exchange places with that poor Christian now ? 
Bear in mind that you may look upon Christians with con- 
tempt, but the time is coming when you will give anything 
to exchange places with the meanest Christian that walks 
the streets of Chicago. 

I used to believe twenty years ago in this text, but I be- 
lieve it more now than ever I did. The longer I live the 
more I become convinced of its awful truth. You know I 
used to live in Chicago, and I used to go from house to 
house among the poor, and in going among the poor I 
gained no little experience of the rich people. In visiting 
the poor I became acquainted with a good many rich fam- 
ilies, and there is scarcely a week passes now but I hear of 
rich families who have gone down to ruin. Just this after- 
noon I heard of a family who, twenty years ago, occupied 
a position among the best. They had a beautiful daughter, 
who could have adorned any station, and a lovely home, 
and I heard to-day that they had gone down to ruin. They 
looked upon Christianity with scorn and contempt. The 
father brought the children up to treat all religion with 
contempt, and his sons have gone down to their graves 
drunkards, and his daughter has died of a broken heart. 
Yes, a man who sows tares must reap them, and some- 
times the harvest is a whirlwind. 

Now, just let us divide that text up — not that I want to 
preach under different heads, but just for the sake of 
greater clearness. When a man sows he expects to reap. 
This truth must be admitted first. A farmer that planted 
grain and never reaped his fields, you would say had gone, 
clear mad. No man sows that doesn't expect to reap. 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 



433 



That is just what he does expect to do. The next point : 
A man always expects to reap more than he sowed. If he 
sows a handful of grain, he expects to get from that handful 
a bushel, and if he sows a bushel he expects a harvest of 
five hundred bushels. And just so it is in spiritual mat- 
ters. If a man scatters handfuls of tares in spiritual things, 
his spiritual harvest will be bushels of tares, and not wheat. 
Whatever he sows he shall reap ; just that and nothing 
more ; and if he sows the wind he must reap the whirlwind. 
A man must expect a harvest of just the kind that his seed 
is ; and this great law is even more true of spiritual growth 
than of natural growth. If a man is bad and corrupt in 
his thoughts, you can tell precisely what his deeds will be. 
If a man is profane and blasphemous, look to his chil- 
dren to be the same; if a father is a lying man, his chil- 
dren will grow up to deceive him just as he deceived others. 
A bad boy is too often the living penalty of the sins of his 
parents ; they have sown and watered, and now he is reap- 
ing the punishment. Another point: if a man sows, he 
must reap the fruit, no matter how ignorant he may claim 
to be, or really be, of the nature of the seed. A plea of 
ignorance won't do. You sow tares and think it wheat, 
but nothing but tares will spring up. You may call it 
wheat, or rye, or grain of whatever name you please, but 
you get nothing but weeds and tares. You must look to 
what kind of seed you are sowing, for neither ignorance 
nor any other excuse can make tares bring forth wheat. 
And now, see how true that is, in regard not only to indi- 
viduals but nations. Nations are only collections of indi- 
viduals, and what is true of the part in regard to character 
is always true of the whole. In this country our forefathers 
planted slavery in the face of an open Bible, and didn't we 
have to reap ? When the harvest came nearly half a million 
of your young men were buried, many of them in a name- 
less grave. Didn't God make this nation weep in the hour 

28 



434 GREAT JOY. 

of gathering the harvest, when we had to give up our young 
men, both North and South, to death ; and every house- 
hold almost had an empty chair, and blood, blood, blood, 
flowed like water for four long years ? Ah, our nation 
sowed, and how in tears and groans she had to reap ! 

Then look at that king in Egypt. He made a decree 
that all the male infants should be put to death ; and to 
death they were put, with all the horrors that hatred and 
jealousy could invent. It was terrible. Well, now, I sup- 
pose some people think it strange that God didn't punish 
Egypt with swift destruction. But look, the punishment 
only tarried. The mill of God grinds slow, but it grinds 
exceedingly small ; in eighty years cast your eye on that 
miserable land. God's vengeance at length came down, 
and ruin along with it. In every house in Egypt the first- 
born was slain, from the palace to the lowest hovel. There 
still lived a God, and this immutable law of His had still 
to be executed ; they had to reap just what they had sown. 
Then, sometimes the mill is not so slow. Sometimes the 
punishment comes rapidly — like lightning. No sooner did 
the voice ascend that Cain had killed his brother, than God 
came down and put a mark upon his forehead. Scarcely had 
Judas betrayed his master than he came back with his 
thirty pieces of silver, and, torn with remorse, threw them 
down before the priests, and went out and hung himself. 
You will find that very often judgment and destruction 
come very sudden — come like a flash from the throne of 
God. I remembe*r, in the north of England, a prominent 
citizen told me a sad case that happened there in the town 
of Newcastle-on-Tyne. It was about a young boy. He 
was very young, but he said he was too young to go to a 
Sunday school. He was an only child. The father and 
mother thought everything of him, and did all they could 
for him. But he fell into bad ways ; he took up with evil 
characters, and finally got to running with thieves. He 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 435 

didn't let his parents know about it. One night they got 
him to break into a saloon — what the people there call a 
public-house. They stood outside while he entered the 
house and broke into the till. He was caught, and in one 
short week he was tried, convicted, and sent for ten years 
to Van Dieman's Land. His term of servitude expired, 
and he returned to his native land. He came to the town 
where his mother and father used to live, and soon stood 
at the door of his old home. He had been gone ten years, 
and what a change he found there. My friends, ten years 
seem a short time, but look back over the period of ten 
years in your own lives, and see how many changes have 
taken place. He went to his old home and knocked, but 
a stranger came to the door and stared him in the face. 
" No, there's no such person lives here, and where your 
parents are I don't know," was the only welcome he re- 
ceived. Then he turned through the gate, and went down 
the street, asking even the children that he met about his 
folks, where they were living, and if they were well. But 
everybody looked blank. Ten years had rolled by, and 
though that seemed perhaps a short time, how many 
changes had taken place ! There, where he was born and 
brought up, he was now an alien, and unknown even in his 
old haunts. But at last he found a couple of townsmen 
that remembered his father and mother, and they told him 
the old house had been deserted long years ago ; that he 
had been gone but a few months before his father was con- 
fined to his house, and very soon after died broken-hearted ; 
and that his mother had gone out of her mind. He went 
to the mad-house where his mother was, and went up to 
her and said : " Mother, mother, don't you know me ? I 
am your son ! " But she raved, and slapped him on the 
face, and shrieked, " You are not my boy ! " and then 
raved again and tore her hair. He left the asylum more 
dead than alive, so completely broken-hearted that he died 



436 GREATJOY. 

in a few months. Yes, the fruit was long growing, but at 
last it ripened to the harvest like a whirlwind, and ven- 
geance made quick work of it. The death harvest was 
reaped. 

But bear in mind what I have said to-night, and be not 
doubters, even if the harvest is slow. Let me read you 
the passage : " Because sentence against their evil deeds 
is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons 
of men are fully set in to do them evil. Though a sinner do 
evil a hundred times and his days be prolonged, yet surely 
I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which 
fear before Him ; but it shall not be well with the wicked, 
neither shall He prolong his days, which are as a shadow, 
because he feareth not before God." 

My friends, if you sow in the flesh you will reap disap- 
pointment, you will reap gloom, despair and remorse : the 
harvest will be death and hell — that will be the end ; but 
if you sow of the Spirit, you will reap peace, joy, happiness, 
life eve r lasting ; for God has said it. There are a great 
many things in this world that we are not sure of — we are 
sure of nothing, I may say. I am not sure that I will finish 
this sermon ; I am not sure that I may go home to-night ; 
we cannot say, positively, that the sun will rise to-morrow 
morning. Yes, my friends, there are a great many things 
that we are not sure of ; but there is one thing we are sure 
of, for God has said it. You can be sure that your sins 
will find you out. If we don't judge ourselves and confess 
our sins they will find us out. " He that covereth his sin 
shall not prosper ; " that is God's decree. 

Now I have been censured by many for advising two 
men who had committed crime to go back and confess 
their sin. One man the other day was cursing me for 
doing so. " A pretty kind of religion this is," he said ; 
but, my friends, if a man has gone into a court and publicly 
perjured himself, he cannot serve God till he publicly con- 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN. 437 

fesses it. If he has sinned in public he must confess his 
sin in public. These men have gone back and written 
letters full of encouragement. One of them says,- " perhaps 
I will go to the penitentiary for three years, but what is 
that in comparison to the burden I would have carried had 
I not confessed." Now bear in mind that if you cover your 
sin you shall not prosper ; you may keep it secret but it 
will eventually came out. Look at the sons of Jacob ! 
Look at them when they took away their brother, and after 
they had delivered him into slavery, see them coming 
back. How much they must have suffered with their secret 
during those twenty years. What misery they must have 
endured as they looked during all these years at their old 
father sorrowing for his son Joseph. They knew the boy 
had not been killed — they knew he was in slavery. For 
twenty years the sin was covered up, but at last it came back 
upon them. God had in the meantime been doing every- 
thing for Joseph, he had raised him nearly to the throne of 
Egypt. A famine struck the land of the father, and the 
old man sent his son down to Egypt to get corn. God 
was at work. He was making these men bring their own 
sin home to themselves. Their conscience smote them 
and they confessed in the presence of Joseph that their sin 
had found them out. Twenty years after it was committed 
that sin was resurrected and with it they were brought 
face to face. My friends, be sure at once that your sin 
will find you out. God has said it, and if He says a thing 
He means it. " He that covereth his sins shall not pios- 
per," I can imagine some one saying to Absalom when he 
started out to fight his father, " you shouldn't do this ; you 
are committing a sin, and it will find you out." I can see 
that young friend looking down upon that man with scorn 
and contempt. The idea of his sins ever finding him out, 
ever coming back upon him. He probably would have said 
" that man's talking for effect," like a good many say of 



43 8 GREAT JOY. 

me. You will hear some people say, " well, now, any man 
who knows anything about education knows well enough 
that Moody is only preaching for effect." If a man tells 
me I am preaching for effect, I say, " Amen, Amen." 
That't what I am trying to do ; what does a man preach 
for if it is not for effect. I am trying to create an effect 
and so wake you up to your condition, and if you don't 
wake up the reaping time will come upon you, the whirl- 
wind of troubles and sorrows will rush over your defence- 
less head and then you will reap what you have sown in 
years gone by. 

But let me say that if you are willing to confess your 
sins — I don't care what the sin may be — God is willing 
and ready to take it away. As I have said, there has 
been a good deal of talk about my interfering with those 
prisoners lately. Some one has said in speaking about 
that man in Ohio, " Well, that is a queer kind of Chris- 
tianity, to send a man away back to the penitentiary to 
suffer." Let me say here that that young man has said in 
his last letter : " I think I am happier than you are, Mr. 
Moody ; God is helping me to bear the burden ; God is 
answering my prayers." My friends, it was a great deal 
better for that man to confess his crime than to try to hide 
it away. If a man commits a crime he should suffer the 
penalty. I must suffer the penalty if I break my arm in 
fighting. The man with whom I fought may forgive me 
for fighting with him, but I have to suffer all the same 
with my arm. A man got into a quarrel and got crippled, 
and some time ago he became converted, but although God 
has forgiven him his sin he has to remain a cripple all his 
life. So a man must reap what he sows. I heard of an 
illustration that just helps me out here. Suppose I have 
a field, and I say to a man, " I want you to sow that field 
with wheat." The man has become very angry — all out of 
sorts with me, and when he sows that wheat he puts in a 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN, II 43 g 

lot of tares. When the wheat has come up I see among 
it a great many tares. I say to him, " Did you sow these 
tares ? " " Well," he says, "' I will confess ; yes, sir, I did 
it ; I sowed these tares ; I will confess it instead of cover- 
ing it up ; but, sir, I am very sorry ; " and I forgive him. 
But when the wheat has to be harvested I make the man 
reap the tares also. 

You know how David fell. No man rose so high and 
fell so far, I think. God took him from the sheepfold 
and put him upon a throne. He took him from obscurity 
and made him King of Israel and Judea ; gave him lands 
in abundance, and would have given him more if he had 
wanted them. He was on the pinnacle of glory, and 
honored among men. But one day, while looking out of 
a window, he saw a woman with whom he became enamor- 
ed. He yielded to the temptation, and ordered her to be 
brought into the palace, and committed the terrible sin of 
adultery. After that, as is the case with all men who com- 
mit a sin, he had to commit another to cover it up, so he 
laid plans to kill her husband, and ordered him to be put in 
a position in the ranks of his army so that he could be 
killed. Months rolled away, and one day Nathan came 
into the palace of the king. I can imagine that David was 
glad to see him. Nathan began to tell him about two 
men who dwelt in a certain city. The one was rich "the 
other poor ; one had herds and flocks, and the other had 
only a little ewe lamb, and he went on to tell how this rich 
man seized this ewe lamb, all that the poor man had, and 
slew it. I can see the anger of David as it flashed from 
his eye when he heard the story, and he cried : " As the 
Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely 
die." He turned to Nathan, and in tones of thunder 
demanded who the man was. " Thou art the man," was 
the reply of Nathan. David had convicted himself. "The 
man who did this thing shall die." Then the Lord said : 



44-0 • GREAT JOY. 

" I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, 
because thou hast kept this thing secret." Soon after the 
hand of death was put upori that house; not only did death 
enter his house, but it wasn't long before his eldest son 
committed adultery with his sister, and another committed 
murder — murdered his own brothers, and went off into a 
foreign land into exile. Then he got up a rebellion and 
drove the king from the throne, and at last died and was 
buried like a dog, and they heaped stones upon his resting 
place. " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap." David committed adultery, so did his son ; David 
committed murder, his son did the same. He was paid 
back in his own coin. He learned the truth of this pas- 
sage : " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap." Why, I hear things every day in this city of Chicago 
that make my ears tingle. I heard of three cases within 
the last six hours where men who have gone to the altar 
and sworn before God to love, cherish, and protect the 
women who became their wives — who have become, some 
of them, mothers of children — and because these men have 
seen other women they like better they have cast off these 
women whom they have sworn before God to love. Do 
you think there is a God in heaven ? Do you think that 
God is not going to punish these men ? They may go on 
in their career — punishment may not come for a little 
while, but the wheels of judgment are going on, and retri- 
bution will come. Some of these heart-broken wives say 
it is hard. Wait a little while. His eyes cover all the 
earth, and man cannot deceive Him. He has said : " What- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." High 
heaven has decreed it, and I beg of you, if you have com- 
mitted this sin, go and cry to the God of mercy. Go, con- 
fess it ; don't try to cover it up. Let every sin be brought 
out ; if you don't your own conscience will turn against 
you by and by. 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN, II. 441 

When I was in London I went into a wax-work there — 
Mme. Tussaud's — and I went into the chamber of horrors. 
There were wax figures of all kinds of murderers in that 
room. There was Booth, who killed Lincoln, and many 
of that class ; but there was one figure that I got interested 
in, who killed his wife because he loved another woman, 
and the law didn't find him out. He married this woman 
and had a family of seven children, and twenty years pass- 
ed away. Then his conscience began to trouble him. He 
had no rest ; he would hear his murdered wife pleading 
continually for her life. His friends began to think he 
was going out of his mind ; he became haggard and his 
conscience haunted him till at last he went to the officers 
of the law and told them that he was guilty of murder. 
He wanted to die, life was so much of an agony to him. 
His conscience turned against him. My friends, if you 
have done wrong, may your conscience be woke up, and 
may you testify against yourself. It is a great deal better 
to judge our own acts and confess them, than go through 
the world with a curse upon you. And if you to-night will 
judge your own sin and confess it, He is faithful to forgive. 
He will forgive every sinner here if you but come to Him 
in faith, and will blot out all your iniquities. 

I was telling of a young man who spoke up in the as- 
sociation one night. He got up at the close of the meet- 
ing and said: "Mr. Moody, may I say a few words?" 
Well, I thought I wouldn't, but then I thought perhaps he 
has a message from God, and I told him to speak. He 
went on and urged these young men to accept salvation. 
"If you have friends praying for you, if you have mothers 
praying for you, treat them kindly, for you will not always 
have them with you." Then he went on to tell how he 
had once a father and mother who loved him dearly, and 
who prayed continually for him. He was an only child. 
His father died, and after the burial his mother became 



442 GREAT JOY. 

more anxious than ever for his salvation. Sometimes she 
would come to him and put her arms around his neck and 
say. with kindness, " O, my boy, I would be so happy if 
you would only be a Christian, and could pray with me." 
He would push her away: "No, mother; I'm not going 
to become a Christian yet ; I am going to wait a little 
longer and see the world." He would try to banish the 
subject from his mind altogether. Sometimes he would 
wake up at the midnight hour, and would hear the voice 
of that mother raised in supplication for her boy : " O, 
God, save my boy ; have mercy upon him." At last, this 
is the way he put it, " it got too hot for him." He saw he 
had either to become a Christian or run away. And away 
he ran, and became a prodigal and a wanderer. He heard 
from her indirectly ; he could not let his mother know 
where he was, because he knew she would have gone to 
the end of the world to find him. One day he got word 
that his mother was very sick. He began to think : " Sup- 
pose mother should die, I would never forgive myself," 
and he said, " I will go home," but then he thought, "Well, 
if I go home, she will be praying at me again, and I can't 
stay under her roof and listen to her prayers," and his 
proud, stubborn heart would not let him go. Months 
went on, and again he heard indirectly that his mother 
was very sick. His conscience began to trouble him. He 
knew he would never forgive himself if he didn't go home, 
and he finally determined. There were no railroads, and 
he had to go in a stage-coach. At night he got into the 
town. The moon was shining, and he could see the little 
village before him. The mother's home was about a mile 
from where he landed, and on his way he had to pass the 
village grocery, and as he went along, he thought he would 
pass through the grave-yard and see his father's grave. 
" What," he thought, " if my mother has been laid there." 
When he got up to the grave he saw by the light of the 



ADDRESS TO YOUNG MEN, II 443 

moon, a new-made grave. He felt the turf, and the earth 
was fresh and soft. He knew who had been laid there, 
and for once in his life the thought flashed upon him, 
" Who will pray now for my lost soul ; my mother and 
father lie there, and they are the only ones who ever 
prayed for me." " Young man," said he, " I spent that night 
at my mother's grave, and before the sun rose, my mother's 
God had become my God. But I can never forgive my- 
self for murdering my mother, although Christ has forgiven 
me." My friends, that poor fellow had to reap what he 
sowed. 

I may be speaking to-night to some young man whose 
mother perhaps just now is in her closet, wrestling in 
prayer for you. Bless God, boy, for that mother. Do 
not treat that mother contemptuously ; do not deny her 
prayer to-night ; do not make light of your mother's cries 
to God this night. God's best gift on earth to you is that 
praying mother. She is your dearest, most unselfish 
friend in all the world. Will you not heed her pleading 
prayer? Come out like a man, come to your mother's 
Saviour, and take Him to be your God. May the God of 
heaven convict you of sin, and draw you to Himself, and 
this will be the best night you're had upon earth. 

How many are there in this room to-night, who have 
moral courage to stand up right in this Tabernacle and 
say, "Pray for me?" How many in this room to-night 
would like to become Christians ? How many are there 
in this room now who would like to have prayer for them, 
beseeching prayer that God will save them ? I am going to 
lead in prayer, and as many as would like to have prayer — 
personal prayer, to God, will just rise. You can just 
stand right up one after another. Never mind if there is 
but one of you ; just remain standing. There's another 
who's got moral courage to rise to-night. Just stand 
up, will you, and remain so while others join you. There, 



444 GREAT JOY. 

there, friends, don't get up as if you were ashamed or scared ; 
rise right up and show me and God that you are in earnest. 
I would like to see every man out of Christ rising right 
up here. There's another in the gallery, and another ; well, 
keep rising ; I would sit here all night and see you rise up 
in the galleries there and everywhere. Every man and 
woman in this assembly, every boy, who would like to be a 
Christian, will you just rise now, all of you. 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 



You will find my text to-night in the fifteenth chapter of 
First Corinthians, and part of the third verse : " Christ 
died for our sins according to the Scriptures." I was going 
to preach in the city of Dublin a few years ago, and the 
town was placarded giving notice of the meeting. There 
was one passage of Scripture at the bottom of the bill that 
my eye rested upon : " Christ died for our sins." I had 
read it a great many times, but I seemed to see it now in a 
new light, and that light flashed into my soul as it never 
did before : " Christ died for my sins." That's the way to 
put it — "for my sins." And I wish I could get every one 
here to take it that way, and just keep saying it while I 
preach to you to-night, " Christ died for me." My friends, 
will you only make this personal and remember that He 
died for you ? Let that little boy and girl remember ihat 
He died for you just as much as for that gray-headed man, 
and let those who came in to scoff at the meeting remember 
that the text is for them — that Christ died for you. I have 
often thought that if I could only make people feel this 
really, and could tell the story of His death as it ought 
to be told, I would only preach one sermon, and go up and 
down the world and just tell this one story. I don't know 
anything that would break the heart of the world like this 
story if it could be brought before men and women and 
they would feel it. I know it broke my heart, and I have 
often thought if I could tell it as it ought to be told, I 
would be the happiest man in the world. I don't believe 
it has ever been told yet. I don't believe the man has been 



44 6 GREAT JOY. 

born who could tell it; I don't believe that the angels in 
heaven could tell it. Sometimes people say we have over- 
drawn the pictures in the Bible, but there is one story that 
has never been overdrawn — the story of His death. No one 
ever did justice to that story ; no one ever made that real. 
I believe the heart of every man in this audience would be 
broken if I could make that story real. I remember during 
the war how I would take up a paper and read about the 
great battles and loss of life ■ but I would lay down the 
paper and soon forget all about the thousands that had 
been slain. But I went into the war and was at the battles 
of Fort Donelson and Pittsburg Landing. After I came 
home and began to read the papers and see the accounts 
of the great battles the whole thing would come up before 
me. I could hear their dying groans ; I could hear them 
crying for their mothers, their appeals for water. The 
whole thing was real, and the whole trouble is that the 
most of people take up this story of the Bible and don't 
make it real. They look upon it as the old story of 1,800 
years ago which they have heard from their cradle. I re- 
member I went 500 miles to Dublin to attend a meeting, 
and when I got there the preacher got up and began to 
talk about the death of Christ. "Well," I said, " he should 
give us something new ; " but when I went home to the 
house where I was staying there were two old pilgrims sit- 
ting, and they were talking about the sermon and the 
death of Christ. The tears were trickling down their 
cheeks, and they spoke about the event as if Christ had 
died in Dublin that afternoon. I felt rebuked, ashamed at 
myself that those old men should speak so lovingly about 
this event, while I had treated it so lightly. I believe, if 
we were living as we ought to, it would be fresh every night, 
every hour, of our lives. 

Now to-night I propose to take up the last hours of 
Christ before He went to Calvary. You know we love to 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 



447 



hear the last words of our friends. I remember a few 
weeks ago, when I went to look upon the dead face of my 
eldest brother, and how earnestly I enquired, " What were 
his last words ? " — how I went round the places where he 
had been, and how for days I tried to pick up what he had 
said to this and that man : and how I treasured up his 
last words. And it seems to me every Christian ought to 
linger round the cross and pick up the loving words of our 
Saviour and treasure them up. So to-night I want you just 
to go back 1,900 years. Let us forget we. are living here 
in Chicago. Let us go back and imagine we are living in 
the land of Palestine — at Jerusalem ; and let us just think 
we are walking down the streets of Jerusalem. It is on a 
Thursday afternoon, and we see thirteen men coming down 
the street. Every eye is upon them. The boys are open- 
ing their eyes at them. Men, women, and children are 
running out of their houses to see those men. Let us 
imagine we are strangers, and we ask who these men are, 
and they tell us, " Why, that's the Galilean prophet and 
His apostles, from the city of Capernaum." We look upon 
them with amazement. We have heard how that man 
has given sight to the blind, how He has cured the lepers, 
given bread to the hungry, and raised the dead. The 
whole land has been full of Him, and out of curiosity we 
follow the little band. They go along the narrow streets, 
and come to a commcn-looking house and enter, and 
ascend a flight of stairs. Suppose we go up those stairs 
with them ; we there find them in a guest chamber, the 
Great Prophet seated with His twelve apostles. We are 
told He became exceeding sorry. He was soon to taste 
the bitter cup, to taste death for every man, to lay down 
His innocent life for the guilty, the just for the unjust, and 
then He is exceeding sorry. His soul is troubled, and as 
He sat there at that table He lets out the secret of His 
heart, and tells them that that night He is going to be 



448 GREAT JOY. 

betrayed by one of- them. They look at one another, and 
one says : " Lord, is it I ? " " No." And another says : 
" Master, is it I ? " " No," and they one after another put 
the question till it comes to Judas. And that black- 
hearted traitor, the devil who had already been at the 
high priest's, turned to Him and said : " Is it I ? " and the 
Lord said : " Thou hast said it ; and what thou doest do it 
quickly." That ought to have broken his black heart, but 
it didn't ; and he arose and went out of that chamber. 
Hear him as he goes down those stairs and into that dark 
night — we are told that it was the darkest the world ever 
saw. That night the Son of Man was to be betrayed by 
man. He went off to the Sanhedrim, to the chief priests, 
and he sold Him — sold Him very cheap, my friends — sold 
Him for some $15 or $20. How many men are to-day selling 
Him as cheaply — selling him for a song ! They don't 
wan't Him. A woman told me last night : " I don't want 
Him ; I wouldn't take Him as a gift." She told me with 
her own lips that she would rather go to hell than heaven. 
Oh, what a heart ! I hope if there is a hard-hearted 
person in this building like her, their heart will be 
broken to-night. But while Judas is out selling his Master, 
Jesus is speaking tender words to His disciples. What a 
tender parting ! For three years He had been associated 
with that holy band ; they had walked with the blessed 
Master, and heard those wonderful parables, they had seen 
Him raise people from the dead, had seen Him cure the 
deaf, the dumb, and the blind— they had been in His 
company for three years, and now they were about to be 
separated for a time, and it was on this occasion He 
uttered those memorable words : " Let not your heart be 
troubled." 

They were now by themselves, the traitor had gone out. 
" Ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's 
house are many mansions ; if it were not so I would have 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 



449 



told you. I go to prepare a place for you."" There was 
the Master in that dark hour; in that bitter, supremely 
bitter, hour, trying to cheer and comfort the little band. 
And then He tittered that wonderful prayer recorded in 
the seventeenth chapter of. John. He poured his heart out 
to God in prayer. He not only prayed for His disciples, 
that had stood firmly by His side, but prayed for His 
enemies. And afterward He said, " The hour of My 
departure is at hand." And then He gathered the eleven 
around Him and they started out of the house and went 
down through the streets of Jerusalem. They went out 
through the eastern gate, passed over through the outlying 
space down to the Valley of Jehosaphat, and so to the 
garden of Gethsemane. And there he took Peter and 
James and John and went on with them a little way apart, 
and then withdrew about a stone's throw off from them and 
fell on his knees and began to pray. You can hear him in 
that cold night in that garden, you can hear his piercing 
cry, "Father, let this cup pass from me if it be thy will." It 
was the prayer of agony, and he sweat as it were great 
drops of blood. Oh the agony the Son of God passed 
through that night, not only physical agony, but a greater 
mental agony, because the sins of the world lay on Him. 
He bore in his person the sin of the whole w 7 orld, and God 
the Father turned his face away from him because God 
could not look upon sin. The father had to turn his face 
away from him : He could not take away the cup, but he 
had to leave him drink it to the very dregs for you and 
me. And Peter and James and John fell asleep ; they 
could not watch one single hour with him. And so while 
they thus slept and Christ was wrestling in prayer, a band 
of men came on the scene. They came on with lanterns 
and torches, as if they were hunting for some one. Jesus 
well knew who they were seeking. He woke up his dis- 

29 



45 o GREAT JOY. 

ciples and went to the band and said, " Whom seek ye ? " 
And they said : " We seek Jesus of Nazareth." Then said 
Jesus, " I am He," and there was something so mysterious 
about his person, something so wonderful about his face, 
that they were struck with awe. They trembled and felt 
as dead men, and could not touch Him. And then Judas 
stepped out from the band. We don't know but he put his 
arm around the Saviour's neck. Ah, what a lesson to pro- 
fessing Christians! Judas was near enough to the Lord 
to put his arms around his neck, and yet he went down to 
hell. Ah, you are not to know true men by their making 
the greatest professions ; that kind don't stand always the 
highest but sometimes the very lowest. Then Judas went 
on and carried out his bargain. He may have put his arm 
around his neck, but at all events he kissed Him. Christ 
turned and said, " Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man 
with a kiss ? " He may have said, " Professing to be My 
follower, do you betray Me with a kiss ? " He might have 
asked : " W T hat have I done that you should betray me ? 
Was I ever unkfnd ; have I ever been untrue ; have I ever 
deceived you ; have I ever betrayed you ? Why Judas, do 
I receive this treatment from you ? " But he merely said, 
" Betrayest thou the Master with a kiss ? " " What is it that 
thou hast done to agree to betray thy Master with a kiss ? " 
And then the men seized on Him. and took those innocent 
hands that had been raised to bless people ; that had 
brought bread to the hungry ; had touched the leprous and 
made them clean ; touched those that were blind and made 
them see, touched the deaf ears and hearts and made them 
hear and feel — those innocent hands that had been raised 
only to bless people, they took and bound them. And 
He resisted not. He gave himself up a willing sacrifice 
and was obedient to their will. And after they had bound 
Him they started back to the city with Him. And they 
took Him to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 4SI 

high priest. And they brought Him in, and instead of 
waiting till the morning, the Sanhedrim was gathered hast- 
ily together. They were so thirsty for His blood they 
couldn't wait even a few hours, They hurried Hirn before 
the assembled Senate, where the first men of the nation 
were gathered together. Seventy of the rulers of the Jews 
came into the council that night. One after another they 
took their seats, and Caiaphas took his place at the head 
of the table. There they sat in solemn state, the highest 
court of the nation. And now they sought for witnesses 
to come and testify against Jesus. The law required that 
that two men should agree together to establish any tes- 
timony. And at last they found two false witnesses 
that came and swore they heard Him talk against the 
holy temple, that He said they might destroy it and He 
could raise it up again in three days. Then, being ques- 
tioned, He said : " Before Abraham was, I am." And 
being further questioned, He answered not a word. At 
last Caiaphas raised his voice and said : " I adjure thee 
by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the 
Christ the Son of God." And Jesus said unto him, " Thou 
hast said ; nevertheless I say unto you : Hereafter shall 
ye see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power 
and coming in the clouds of heaven." And the moment 
Jesus said that, Caiaphas rent his clothes and said : " He 
had spoken blasphemy: vvhat further need have we of wit- 
nesses ? Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy ! " 
Then he hurriedly put the question, " What think ye ? " 
And they rendered as their verdict : " He is guilty of 
death." How the sentence rung out in that council cham- 
ber. It was Thursday night, it may have been midnight ; 
many of the citizens had retired, and it was not known 
until morning. The next clay was a notable feast-day. 
There were there people from all parts of the country • the 
whole city was crowded. Perhaps Zaccheus was there 



452 GREAT JOY. 

from Jericho ; perhaps many from whom he had cast out 
devils ; perhaps blind Bartimeus, no longer blind, was 
there, and that Samaritan woman Christ had met by the 
well of Sychar. Undoubtedly hundreds were there, who, 
but for Jesus, could not have got there. Would they 
stand by Him? Would they cling to Him now, in this 
hour of His need ? And Peter — he was of course there — 
would he be staunch ? Only a few days before he had 
solemnly promised to stand by his Lord to the last. 
" Though others might deny Him, he would die with Him." 
Would not Peter, at least, have moral courage to come out 
before all the world and own him ? Alas, no. Why, that 
very night as Jesus was in the judgment hall, impetuous 
Peter denied Him with a curse, and swore he never knew 
Him. It seemed there was no hand to defend Him ; no 
hand to help Him ; there He was that night in the hands of 
His enemy. Very early the next morning, at what hour 
we do not know, the officers of the Governor came and 
bound Him and took Him away to Pilate to have Him put 
to death. The Romans had taken away the power of sen- 
tencing to death, and so the Jews could only put Him to 
death by gaining the Romans' consent. So now they 
brought Him to Pilate. Pilate never had such a person 
as that before him. He had sentenced many to death, but 
not like Him. He had heard often of this Galilean ; His 
fame had long ago reached him ; strange rumors about 
Him had come up from Bethlehem. Perhaps Pilate had 
even seen Christ and talked with Him. Quite likely so, 
and his curiosity must have been excited by the many 
stories he heard about Him among his subjects. Pilate, 
this time, was with Christ two hours. At last he came out, 
after examining Him, and said : " I find no fault in this 
man." But the crowd cried out, "If you let this mango, 
you are not Caesar's friend." They knew this would touch 
his loyalty and ambition to be a successful politician. He 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 453 

could not, they argued, tolerate any rival to the Roman 
power, and his first duty would be to put down everything 
like rebellion. " If you don't condemn him, you are not 
Caesar's friend," rang in his ears, as the crowd insisted 
that Christ was a rebel and wanted to get up an insurrec- 
tion in the land, and His friends wanted to make Him 
King. They raised their yells and ended by repeating : 
"You are no friend of Caesar's. We will -report you at 
Rome, and you will lose your office." Poor Pilate ! He 
hadn't moral courage to stand firm. And so he said, " This 
Jesus^is He a Galilean." Yes, they said, he was brought 
up in Nazareth, but has been living out in Galilee. So, 
the next thing, Pilate sent him to Herod. 

Now you can see that crowd moving through the city in 
their way to the Galilean Governor's. When he saw Him 
he probably thought it was John, whom he had put to 
death, that had been raised from the grave, and curiosity 
was excited to see. But when he found out who it really 
was, we are told he got out some cast-off garments, prob- 
ably some that had belonged to one of their kings, and 
dressed Him in them, and, pointing their finger in scorn 
at Him, cried, " Hail, King of the Jews ! " Then they 
blindfolded Him, and struck Him on the head, saying in 
derision, " You are a prophet ; tell us who struck you." 
some would spit upon Him, and amid a torrent of scorn 
and contempt. Yes, my friends, they spat upon Him. 
Suppose the Prince of Wales would come to this country, 
and some one would go up and spit upon him, why all 
Europe would be up about it ; but when the Son of Man 
came down to this earth they spat upon Him, and no one 
raised his voice against it. But with all this ignominy that 
bloodthirsty Herod, who took the life of John, refused to 
take His life, and sent Him back to Pilate. And now the 
crowd had increased. The whole city is excited. Every 
one is talking about how the Galilean prophet had been 



454 GREAT JOY. 

brought before the Sanhedrim and found guilty of blas- 
phemy, and was to die the terrible death of the cross. His 
friends all the time He was on trial, not a solitary one 
stood up for Him. All forsook Him then. The very men 
who a few days before cried as He entered Jerusalem : 
" Hosannah, to the Son of David," now lifted up their 
voices and cried : " Away with Him ! " " Crucify Him ! " 
And they brought Him back to Pilate, and undoubtedly 
around his house a crowd had gathered as great as that 
assembled here to-night. It didn't take much to rouse 
these Jews. They were very easily fired, and the whole 
city is aroused. They are clamoring — thirsty for His blood. 
Pilate is still anxious to release Him. His conscience told 
him to release Christ, and he also received a communica- 
tion from his wife in which she said : " Have thou nothing 
to do with this just man, for I have suffered many things 
this day in a dream because of him." He tried to release 
Him, but he wanted to be on both sides. At last he said : 
"I've got a plan that will work, I think." It was custom- 
ary, you know, to release a prisoner upon the day of the 
Governor's feast, and he says : " I will get the vilest wretch 
I can, the blackest-hearted murderer and robber, and bring 
up this pure man and ask them which of the two they will 
have. But the chief priests heard what he was going to 
do, and went around among the crowd and told them, and 
got their feelings worked up. And now Pilate thought he 
was going to get rid of the terrible responsibility of putting 
Him to death. Picture the crowd standing around that 
Governor's house. See the soldiers bringing out one with 
his hands dripping with the blood of his fellow man, and 
another who had all His life healed the sick, given life, 
and done good. " Which will I release unto you ? " And 
they lift up their voices — it is the cry of the whole mob — ■ 
" Barabbas, Barabbas, Barabbas," and the poor Governor, 
disappointed, cried out " What shall I do with Christ ? " 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 455 

"Let Him be crucified," that was the burden of the voice 
that rang through the streets of Jerusalem that day. 

" Away with this pestilent fellow — we don't want him. 
Put him to death I " Pilate turned around and washed his 
hands with water and said, " I am innocent of the blood of 
this just person." Poor, blind, deceived man. He thought 
that he could wash his hands of this iniquitous decision ; 
but what a mistake. When He had said this they cried, 
" His blood be upon us and on our children." Would to 
God they had cried out u Let His blood be upon us and 
our children to save them," but that wasn't the cry. " Let 
His blood be upon us and on our children." And look 
what a punishment has come upon that race — see how 
they've been scattered to the four winds of heaven, because 
they neglected Him. Only about seventy years afterwards 
Titus came and besieged Jerusalem, and nearly t, 100,000 
people perished, and 97,000 were sold to slavery. It fell, 
and the Jewish people have been wanderers for 1800 years. 
And then Pilate gave him up to be scourged. Now, I was 
a great many years a Christian before I knew what the 
Roman custom of scourging was, but when the truth dawn* 
ed upon me, when I learned what it really was, I wept for 
days and got down on my knees and asked Him forgive- 
ness for not loving Him more than I had. The custom of 
scourging consisted in taking the wrists and binding them 
tightly together, and then fastening them to a post or pillar. 
The back is bared, and a lash, composed of sharp pieces of 
steel plaited together, is brought down upon the back. O, 
sinner, look at the Prophet Isaiah, " He was wounded for 
our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his 
stripes we are healed." He was wounded for me. Yes, 
with his stripes am I healed. May this be a reality to every 
one here to-night. Don't let us conceal it. It was the 
God of Heaven they scourged for us. For fifteen minutes 



456 GREAT JOY. 

they brought down blow upon blow on that innocent body. 
Oh, you who cast Him away ; you who see no reason why 
you should love Him ; you who cannot see why you should 
take your stand on His side, why you should defend His 
cause, think of this ! And after scourging Him, instead of 
binding up His wounds, and bringing oil and ointment and 
pouring it upon those wounds : instead of doing this they 
put upon Him some other cast-off garments, and made 
Him a crown of thorns, and some wretch put it on His 
head. You know when Queen Victoria sits on her throne 
they put a crown upon her head filled with diamonds and 
precious stones worth about $20,000,000; but here they 
crowned God's son with a crown of thorns, the curse of the 
earth. And in mockery of a king, they put a stick in His 
hand. You know when the Queen of England sits on her 
throne she has a sceptre in her hand ; and here in the 
hands of the Prince of Heaven they put a stick and scof- 
fingly shouted, " Hail, King of the Jews ! " They jeered 
and mocked that precious Christ. At last one of the crowd 
took the rod out of Jesus' hand and brought it down over 
His defenseless head, driving those thorns into His brow. 
Oh, what treatment the Son of God received ! And those 
wounds were made for us ; He bore His stripes for you 
and for me. You can see the blood trickle down that in- 
nocent head, down that dear face, and over His bosom. 
And all for us ! Oh, divine, infinite compassion ; " He 
bore our sins in His own body on the tree." And now 
they take off the purple robe of scorn and put His own 
garment upon Him, and they lift up His cross and lay it 
upon Him. It is not a gilded cross, such as you ladies 
wear about the neck ; it is not a cross of polished wood, 
thickly set with diamonds and precious stones, but a 
great, rugged, heavy cross, made roughly out of a 
tree. Now, I see them lift and lay it on his shoulders. 
And they lay crosses on two thieves who are to be led 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 



457 



away and executed with him. The devil wanted to blacken 
the name of Christ and so he is placed between two thieves 
who are made to carry their own crosses. Why the cross 
of Jesus was taken from his shoulders after a few steps, 
we can easily imagine. He cannot stand up — the sins of 
the whole world are piled upon him, — and He cannot stand 
up, much less walk under the accumulated load. See him 
reel and stagger ! See him fall almost fainting to the earth ! 
The mountain weight crushes down even the Son of God ! 
They take the cross from his shoulders and lay it upon 
Simon the Cyrenian. And now look, sinners, and behold 
your Saviour, behold the Lamb of God going up to Mount 
Calvary, like a sheep to the slaughter. Away to Calvary 
they are leading him, to crucify and put him to death. I 
see them on the way, climbing the toilsome ascent. Jesus 
is calling on God in prayer, praying even for his murder- 
ers. And now they have got him to the summit of the 
hill. They've arrived ; it is Golgotha, the place of the 
skull. And they take and lay him down on the cross. 
Yonder come the soldiers with hammers and nails in their 
hands. You can see them take those pliant arms and 
stretch them out, and against those blessed, innocent hands 
they point the sharp spikes. You can hear that hammer 
come down on that nail — blow, blow, — and the hands of 
Jesus are pierced through, fastened bleeding to the cross. 
Long spikes are driven through both feet, and God, the 
Son of the Father, lies quivering, nailed to the cross. And 
now they mock at him. See, they spit on him, hooting 
and laughing and yelling, " Away with him ; he saved 
others ; let him save himself if he be Christ the chosen of 
God." Then the Roman soldiers lifted up the cross and 
placed it upright between heaven and earth, with those arms 
of Jesus outstretched still in blessing. The love that he 
had in his bosom kept those dear hands extended ; they 
didn't need the nails. He might have come down from 



4S 8 GREAT JOY. 

the cross ; with one stroke of his hand he could have sum- 
moned all the angels of God against his murderers, or 
called down fire out of heaven to consume every one of 
them. But no ; he willed to hang there between heaven 
and earth ; his strength fainted not. Even " as Moses 
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the 
Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in 
Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Oh 
sinner, go to Calvary to-night ; look on that Saviour ; gaze 
on Him between those two thieves ; hear that piercing cry 
— does he call down fire from heaven ? No, no ! " Father, 
father," He cries, " forgive them, for they know not what 
they do." Yes, I think that Christ did forgive from his heart 
every soul there on Calvary, even those that drove the 
spikes, even those that wagged their heads and reviled him. 
Even the two thieves railed on Him. But at last one of 
them cried out, " Lord, remember me when thou comest into 
thy kingdom." Oh, sinner, did Christ rebuke him, or did 
He keep silent ? No ; a benediction fell from his lips, " This 
day thou shalt be with me in Paradise." That malefactor 
had but to cry and he was snatched from the brink of hell. 
Oh, lost one, but cry to-night to Jesus and He will save 
you. Will you not let him ? Oh, hear His gracious words 
to the vile malefactor, " This day shalt thou be with me in 
Paradise." At last He cried out, " I thirst," and they 
gave him gall mixed with vinegar, and mocked him again, 
" Hail, King of the Jews, come down from thy cross." But 
He patiently endured. And again He opens his lips, we 
hear that cry from that cross, " Father, into thy hands I 
commit my spirit." And then the end approaches, and He 
cries out in a loud voice : " It is finished," " It is finished," 
"It is finished." 

What a thrill of joy must have swept through the streets 
of heaven. " It is finished ! It is finished ! " the angels 
cry as they strike their golden harps, and the bells of 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 



459 



heaven, if there's any there, ring out the peal of joy. " It 
is finished, the whole world can now be saved. The work 
of the God-man is finished to-day on Calvary ; all that man 
has to do is to believe and they shall be saved ! " 

The Son of Man had triumphed ■ He had died to make 
atonement, and through him all flesh might die and yet 
live eternally. The work was complete ; the world was 
saved ! Ah, I can just imagine how the black powers of 
hell gathered around that dying scene, and the waves of 
hell and death dashed upon that cross. Sometimes, down 
on the beach of Lake Michigan there, you see the waves 
coming dashing on the breakwater. They come dashing 
along as though they would break everything to pieces, 
but the waves themselves are dashed to pieces and the 
breakwater stands invincible. So the dark waves of death 
and hell came dashing up against the bosom of the Son of 
God. They roared and surged, but all in vain ; they fell 
back shattered into fine spray against the Rock, Christ — 
Christ the destroyer of death, Christ the victor over hell. 
When He shouted, "It is finished," I think I see the fiend 
creeping back to hell and hear him whispering, " It is 
finished ; all mankind can now be saved." They have led 
on the children to kill the Son of God ■ but they are out- 
witted, for God " maketh even the wrath of man to praise 
him." 

But my friends, we will not leave him there on the cross. 
We are told that straightway when he yielded up the ghost 
even nature owned its God. The sun refused to look longer 
upon the scene ; darkness came over the earth for three 
hours ; the rocks were rent and the earth was shaken, and 
many that slept came forth from their graves. And when 
Jesus was now dead, we are told that Joseph of Arima- 
thea, a rich man and a member of the Sanhedrim, went 
boldly to Pilate and begged the Lord's body that he might 
bury it. He was a just man, he was an honorable coun- 



460 GREAT JOY. 

sellor, and let me mention right here a most remarkable 
thing : Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all join in telling 
of this pious act of Joseph's. It is not everything in this 
story of the last agony that all four of them bring out, but 
they all give this. Joseph of Arimathea, the secret disciple, 
was left to ask for the Lord's body. All his open disciples 
had forsaken him and fled ; all had forsaken him — some 
had disowned him, and Judas had betrayed him ; and it 
was left for Joseph of Arimathea to go to Pilate and him- 
self alone perform the last offices for the dead Master. It 
was the death of Jesus that brought out Joseph of Arima- 
thea, the secret disciple — Oh backward, secret Christians, 
shall it not touch you, too ? My friends, if Christ died for 
you on Calvary, shall you not live for him ? Shall you not 
speak for him? Is not this the least you can do? He 
went boldly into the presence of the governor and asked 
him for the body of Jesus. When Pilate heard he was dead 
he marvelled. He gave orders to see that Jesus was dead. 
And now you can see those Roman soldiers, going towards 
Calvary, and Joseph with some of his servants behind him. 
See them standing at the cross and a soldier just goes up 
and puts a spear into the side of the Son of God, and that 
prophecy was brought out. " In that day there shall be a 
fountain opened in the house of David for sin and for un- 
cleanness." The soldier put it in and His blood covered 
the spear. Yes, Christ's blood covered sin. Yes, God in 
mercy covered sin. That act was the crowning act of in- 
dignity of earth and hell to drive that spear into the very 
heart of the God-man ; and the crowning act of mercy and 
love and heaven that blood came out and covered the spear. 
And now Joseph and Nicodemus take down that body. 
You can see them wash the blood from that head, you can 
see them draw those nails out carefully from his hands — from 
his feet, and they take that mangled and bruised body 
down and wash it. 



THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 4 6i 

(At this moment the roaring wind, which had been rising 
all the evening, seemed as though it would break through 
the roof, to which point nearly everybody's attention was 
attracted.) 

Mr. Moody — My friends, it is only the wind. The devil 
don't want you to hear this story of Jesus' dying love for 
you ; he don't want you to hear and be saved. But just 
give attention, and don't let him accomplish his object ; let 
the wind go. If you don't pay attention my sermon goes 
for nothing. You see them take the body down and wrap 
it in fine linen ; You can see Joseph of Arimathea and 
Nicodemus, another secret disciple, anoint that body with 
ointment, and then a little funeral procession moving to the - 
tomb of Joseph, hewn out of the rock, and there they lay 
that body away. 

But, thank God, He did not rest very long. I have not 
time to speak about His resurrection now, but, God 
willing, I will speak about it before I leave. But let me 
ask you, are you going out of this Tabernacle saying you 
don't want Christ — saying you would rather be without 
Him ? Are you going out despising His love, His death, 
His offer of mercy ? " Christ died for our sins." Will you 
have the benefit of His death or send the message back to 
the God of Heaven that you despise His love, His offer of 
mercy, that you despise this blessed Redeemer that came 
down to seek and save that which was lost ? 



SINNERS CALLED TO REPENTANCE. 



I want to call your attention to-night to a text which 
you will find in the fifth chapter of Luke and thirty- 
second verse. The text is also recorded in Matthew and 
in Mark, and whenever you find a passage recorded by ally 
three of the evangelists you may know that it is one of 
those important truths which He wants to impress upon 
people. " I came not to call the righteous but sinners to 
repentance." It was when He first came down to Caper-/ 
naum that he uttered these words. He had been cast out 
of Nazareth • they didn't want Him ; they wouldn't have 
salvation, and he came down to Capernaum, and there He 
found Levi sitting at the receipt of customs, and He called 
him to become one of His disciples. Levi was so full of 
joy when he found Christ — as all young converts are — 
that he got up a great feast, and he invited all the publi- 
cans and sinners to it. I suppose he wanted to get them 
all converted — that was the reason he prepared a sumptu- 
ous feast. It was not to hear Jesus, but just to partake of 
the feast that Levi had prepared for them. And Jesus was -/ 
there too among these publicans and sinners. The Phar- 
isees were there too, and they began to murmur against 
His disciples, saying : " Why do these men eat with publi- 
cans and sinners ? " and it was on this occasion that Christ 
uttered this wonderful text : " I came not to call the right- 
eous but the sinners to repentance." That is what He 
came into this world for ; He came into the world just for 
the very purpose of saving sinners. Now a good many 

men come to Chicago to do a certain work. Some come 

462 



SINNERS CALLED TO REPENTANCE. 463 

to practise law, that's their profession ; others come to 
practise medicine, because that's their business; some are 
business men and some are mechanics ; and when Christ 
came into this world He came for a purpose ; He 
had a profession, if you will allow me the expres- 
sion — He came to call sinners to repentance. You 
know when he >vas going down to the Samaritan 
town His disciples went down to see whether they 
would let Him come there. We find Him on His way 
from Galilee to Jerusalem. You know there was such 
a hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans that they 
would have no dealings with each other, and he sent His 
disciples on to see if He would be allowed to enter. The 
Samaritans would not allow Him there, and His disciples 
were so incensed that James and John asked Jesus to 
" command tire to come down from Heaven and consume 
them, even as Elias did." " Why," said the Son of Man, 
" I didn't come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." 
That's what He came for. He came to bless men ; He 
came to do men good, and there is not a sinner here to- 
night who cannot be saved and will be saved to-night if 
they wish. You may call this world a great hospital, and 
all the people are born sick. A great many people imagine 
their souls are never diseased, who think they don't need 
a physician ; but when people wake up to the fact that 
their souls are diseased, then they find the need of a phy- 
sician. But there is no need for the physician unless you 
feel you are sick. You know you could not send a physi- 
cian to a man who was well. Suppose I go on the West 
Side and ask a celebrated physician to come over and see 
Mr. White. Suppose he comes round and finds Mr. White 
sitting in his drawing-room perfectly well. "Why, how is 
this? Mr. Moody told me you were sick, and bade me 
make a professional call." Not only is the physician dis- 
gusted, but the patient is too. The world don't send for a 



464 GREAT JOY. 

physician till sickness comes. When it feels sick then it 
sends for a doctor, and the doctor comes. And whenever 
a man feels his need of Christ and calls, that moment he 
comes and is healed. There is a Physician here to-night 
for every sinner, I don't care what your sins may be, or 
how long you have been living in sin ; I don't care if your 
life has been as black as hell, the Great Physician is here. 
What for ? Just to heal every man and woman that wants 
to be healed. 

Now, the great trouble is to make people believe they 
are sick ; but the moment you believe that you are, then it 
is that you are willing to take the remedy. I remember 
some years ago a patent medicine came out, and the whole 
of Chicago was placarded about it. I could not turn my 
head but I saw " Paine's Pain Killer." On the walls, on 
the curb-stones, everywhere was "pain-killer," "pain- 
killer." I felt disgusted at the sight of these bills con- 
stantly telling me about this patent medicine. But one day 
I had a terrible headache, so bad that I could hardly see, 
and was walking down the streets and saw the bills again 
and went and bought some. When I was well I didn't care 
for it, but when I got sick I found it was the very thing I 
wanted. If there is one here who feels the %eed of a 
Saviour, remember the greater the sin the greater the need 
of a Saviour. I remember when I was coming back from 
Europe on the steamer there was a young officer ; I felt 
greatly drawn out toward him, because I could see he was 
dying. It didn't seem to him as if he was dying, but 
you know death is very deceitful. He seemed to be joy- 
ous and light-hearted. He would talk about his plans, 
and take out his guns, and tell how he intended to go hunt- 
ing when he arrived ; but it seemed to me that he would 
not live to see this country. By and by he was taken down 
on his bed, and then the truth came to him that death was 
upon him. He got a friend to write out a telegram, which 



SINNERS CALLED TO REPENTANCE. 465 

this friend was to send to his mother when they arrived. 
It read : " Mother, I am real sick. — Charlie." As soon as 
the boat touched the shore he was to send it. " But," said 
some one, " why not tell her in the telegram to come ? " 
" Ah," he replied, " she will come." He knew whenever 
she read it and saw that he wanted help she would come. 
It was the knowledge of his need that would bring her. 
So Christ is waiting to hear our need, and man's need 
brings out the help of God. As I said before, the real 
trouble is that men don't think they need Him. You know 
that in one place — in the fifteenth chapter of Luke — they 
brought this charge against Him : " This man receiveth 
sinners, and eateth with them." This charge was brought 
against Him again and again. I am told by Hebrew 
scholars that instead of "receiveth " it should be rendered, 
" He is looking out for them." And that's what He was 
doing. He was looking out for them. He didn't care 
how black in sin they might be, He was ready to take 
them. 

Now, a great many say, " I am too great a sinner to be 
saved." That is like a hungry man saying he is too hungry 
to eat, or a sick man saying he is too sick to send for a 
doctor, or a beggar saying, " I am too poor to beg ; I'll 
wait till I get some money first." If a man is hungry and 
perishing you must relieve him. 

Now there is not a sinner in Chicago but has his repre- 
sentative in the Bible. Take, for instance, the publicans. 
You know the Jews thought this class about the lowest in 
the world. They put them lower than any other kind of sinner. 
They placed them along with the sinners — "publicans 
and sinners." The publicans were the tax collectors, and 
they defrauded the people at every turn. For instance, a 
man in South Chicago will pay over, perhaps, a hundred 
thousand dollars for the privilege of just collecting the 
taxes, and then he goes to work and screws the people out 

30 



466 GREAT JOY. 

of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He don't care a 
straw for justice or appearances. He conies into the cot- 
tage of the widow and taxes half she has. At every house 
the tax collector puts the blocks to his victims, and famine 
often comes in when he goes out. The people detest him ; 
they hate him with a perfect hatred. They always find 
him a drag on them, and feel he hasn't a bit of sympathy 
for them. Their money, they find, is taken without warrant ; 
their homes are broken up, and trouble and starvation come 
on them. And so the publican was hated wherever he 
turned. He was the agent of the Roman tyrant, and the 
people were brought up to shun him. He deserved it all, 
and even more, by his heartless exactions ; and yet Christ 
forgave even him. And just so rum-sellers can be saved. 
And another class that Christ had mercy on was the 
thieves. When on the cross he saved a thief. There may 
be some thief here to-night. I tell you, my friend, you 
may be saved if you only will. There may be some one 
here who is persecuting a good wife, and making her home 
a perfect hell on earth. But you, too, may be saved, 
There may be some here persecuting the Church, but 
there's salvation for you. When Saul was persecuting the 
Christians from city to city, he was stopped short by the 
voice of God ; he was converted. And those high-headed 
Pharisees, so well versed in the law of Moses, even they 
were converted. Joseph of Arimathea was a Pharisee, 
and so was Nicodemus. 

But to-night I want to talk about another class that 
Jesus dealt with and led to a higher life. I want to talk 
about fallen women. There are some people who believe 
that these have fallen so low that Christ will pass them by. 
But my friends, that thought comes from the Evil One. In 
all this blessed book there is not one, not a solitary one of 
this class mentioned that ever came to Him but that He 
received them. Yes, He even went out of His way and 



SINNERS CALLED TO REPENTANCE. 467 

sought her out. Now I want to take three representative 
cases where these women had to do with Christ. One is 
the case of an awakened one. The spirit of God has dealt 
with her anxious, wakened soul. The Lord was one day 
at Jerusalem and a banquet was given Him by Simeon. 
There was a banquet table in the house, arranged accord- 
ing to the fashion of that day. Instead of chairs for the 
guests, as was customary, the guests sat reclining on 
lounges. Well, it was just one of these repasts that our 
Lord sat down to, along with the wealthy Simeon and his 
many guests. But no sooner had He entered than this 
woman followed Him into the house, and fell down at His 
feet, and began to wash them with her tears. It was the 
custom in those days to wash one's feet on entering a 
house. Sandals were worn and the practice was necessary. 
Well, this woman had got into the house by some means 
and once inside had quietly stolen up to the feet of Jesus. 
And in her hands she brought a box ; but her heart too, 
was just as full of ointment as the box she carried. And 
there was the sweetest perfume as she stole to His feet. 
And her tears started to fall down on those sacred feet, hot, 
scalding tears that gushed out like water. She said noth- 
ing while the tears fell, and then she took down her long 
black hair and wiped His feet with the hair of her head. 
• And after that she poured out the ointment on His feet. 
Then straitway the Pharisees began talking together. How 
all through the New Testament these Pharisees kept 
whispering and talking together. They said, shaking their 
heads, " This Man receiveth sinners ; " and then, " This 
Man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and 
what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him, for she 
is a sinner." No prophet, they insisted, would allow that 
kind of a woman near him, but would push her away. 
And then the Saviour read these thoughts and quickly re- 
buked them. He said, Simeon, I have something to say 



468 GREAT JOY. 

to thee. And he said, Master, say on. And He said : 
" Seest thou this woman ? I entered into thine house, thou 
gavest me no water to wash my feet ; but she has washed 
my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her 
head. Thou givest me no kiss, but this woman since I 
came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with 
oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my 
feet with ointment." Simeon was like* a great many Phari- 
sees nowadays, who say, " Oh, well, we will entertain that 
minister if we must. We don't want to ; he's a dreadful 
nuisance ; but we will have to put up with him ; it's our 
duty to be patronizing." Well, the Master said more to 
His entertainer. " There was a certain creditor," He said, 
"which had two debtors ; the one owed five hundred pence, 
and the other fifty, and when he had nothing to pay " — 
mark that, sinner ; the debtor had nothing to pay. There 
is no sinner in the world that can pay anything to cancel 
his debt to God. The great trouble is that sinners think 
they can pay, some of them 75 cents on the dollar, 
some even feel able to pay 99 cents on the dollar, and the 
one cent that they are short, they think they can make that 
up some way. That is not the way ; it is all wrong ; you 
must throw all the debt on God. Some few perhaps, will 
only claim to pay 25 cents on the dollar, but they are not 
humble enough either, they can't begin to carry out their 
bargain. Why, sinner, you couldn't pay one-tenth part of 
a single mill of the debt you are under to Almighty God. 
Now it says in this parable that they could not pay him 
anything — they had nothing to give and the creditor frankly 
forgave them both. " Now, Simeon," the Master asked, 
" which should love that man the most ? " "I suppose," 
was the reply, "he that was forgiven the most." "Thou 
hast rightly judged ; this woman loves much because she 
hath been forgiven much," and went on to tell Simeon all 
about her. I suppose he wanted to make it plainer to 



SINNERS CALLED TO REPENTANCE. 469 

Simeon and he turned to the poor woman and said, " Thy 
sins are forgiven " — all forgiven ; not part of them — not 
half of them, but every sin from the cradle up, every im- 
pure desire, or thought is blotted out for time and eternity, 
and He said, "Go in peace." Yes, truly, she went out in 
peace, for she went out in the light of heaven. With what 
brightness the light must have come down to her from 
those eternal hills — with what beauty it must have flashed 
on her soul. Yes, she came to the feet of the Master for 
a blessing, and she got it, and if there is a poor woman 
here to-night who wants a blessing, she will get it. 

I want to call your attention to a thought right here. 
You have not got the name of one of those poor women. 
The three women who had fallen, who had been guilty of 
adultery, and had been blessed by Him, not one of them 
has been named. It seems to me as if it had been intended 
that when they got to heaven we should not know them — ■ 
they will just mingle with the rest. Their names had not 
been handed down for eighteen hundred years. They have 
called Mary Magdalen a fallen woman, but bear in mind 
there is nothing in Scripture to make us understand that 
she was a poor, fallen woman, and I believe if she had 
been, her name would not have been handed down. 

Now, the next woman was altogether different from the 
woman in Luke. She didn't come with an alabaster box, 
seeking a blessing. She was perfectly indifferent ; she was 
a careless sinner. Perhaps there are some poor, fallen 
women who have come to-night in a careless spirit — only 
out of curiosity ; they don't want a Saviour ; they don't want 
their sins blotted out ; they don't want any forgiveness. 
Perhaps she had heard that at Moody and Sankey's they 
were going to preach repentance, and that a- great many 
fallen women were likely to be there, and thought she 
would just come down to see how they took it. Now you 
have a representative here. After Christ had that inter- 



470 GREAT JOY. 

view with Nicodemus, we are told he went up to Galilee 
by Samaria. He could have gone up to Galilee without 
going to Samaria, but he knew there was a fallen woman 
there. He got to the well, and sent off his disciples to get 
bread. Why did he not keep one with Him ? Because 
He knew the woman was coming that way, and she would 
not probably like to see so many. While He is sitting on 
the curb-stone of the well, a poor, fallen woman of Samaria 
comes along for water. You know the people in those 
days used to come out in the morning and evening to get 
their water, not in the blaze of the noon-day sun. No 
doubt she was ashamed to come out there to meet the pure 
and virtuous at the well, and that was the reason why she 
stole out at the hour. She brought her waterpot to get 
water, and when she came up the Master stopped her and 
asked her for a drink, just to draw her out. She saw he 
was a Jew. We can always tell a Jew : God has put a 
mark upon them. " How is this ? You a Jew and ask a 
Samaritan for a drink? The Jews have no dealings with 
the Samaritans." " Ah, you don't know Me," he re- 
plied ; " if you would have asked Me for drink I would have 
given you living water." " How could you give me living 
water; why you have no vessel to draw water with?" 
" Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but 
whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him 
will have a well springing up in his heart into everlasting 
life." "Well," probably she thought, "that is a good 
thing. One draught of water will give me a well — one 
draught of water for the rest of my days." She asked Him 
for this living water, and he told her, " Go, bring thy hus- 
band." He was just drawing her out, just got her up to 
the point of confession. " I have no husband," she said. 
" For thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now 
hast is not thy husband ; in that saidst thou truly." I can 
see that woman's astonishment. She looks all around to see 



SINNERS CALLED TO REPENTANCE. 



471 



who had told him all about her. Like a man who came up 
from Michigan lately, who came into the tabernacle and 
listened to the sermon which, as he told me, seemed all to 
be preached at him. He wondered who had told me all 
about him. He got Christ, and is going back to Michigan 
to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word of God 
reached her, and she saw she was detected. " Sir, I per- 
ceive thou art a prophet ; " then she went on the old re- 
ligious discussion, but the Lord turned her from that, and 
told her that the hour had come when the people must wor- 
ship the Father in spirit and in truth, not in this or that 
particular mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem. And she said : 
" When the Messiah cometh He will tell us all things," and 
when she had said this she was ready for the truth. Then 
Jesus said, " I am the Messiah." Just then she saw His dis- 
ciples coming, and probably she thought these men might 
know who she was, and she got up her pot, and away she 
went to the city. The moment she got within the gates she 
shouted, " Come see this man I have met at the well. Is 
not this the Messiah ? Why, He has told me all that ever 
I did." And you can see all the men, women, and chil- 
dren running out of that city up to the well. As He stands 
in the midst of' His disciples and He sees the multitudes 
coming running toward them, He says, " Look yonder ; 
look at the fields, for they are already white with the 
harvest ; look what that poor fallen woman has done : " 
and He went into that town as an invited guest, and many 
believed on account of the woman's testimony, and many 
more believed on account of His own. 

Now, my friends, He did not condemn the poor adul- 
teress. The Son of God was not ashamed to talk with her, 
and tell her of that living water, those who drank of which, 
He said, would never die. He did not condemn her. He 
came to save her, came to tell how to be blessed here and 
blessed hereafter. 



472 GREAT JOY. 

The next case is still much worse. You may say it is 
like black, blacker, blackest, compared with the other two. 
I want to speak about this one, that in the eight chapter 
of John. One woman I have spoken of was in the house 
of a Pharisee, at a dinner party, the other by the well of 
Sychar, and now we come to the Temple porch. They 
had taken a woman in adultery, had caught her in the very 
act. They had not got the man ■ they had held only the 
poor woman. While He is speaking, the Pharisees are 
driving this poor fallen woman right into the Temple. 
What a commotion there would be here to-night, if such a 
scene should take place in the tabernacle ! She had bro- 
ken the law of Moses, by which a woman caught in the 
act of adultery was to be put to death. The woman is 
brought toward Him ; and now they are about to put the 
question of her life or death before Him. He had said 
that He hadn't come to condemn the world, but to save 
the world, and they are just going to try and condemn 
Him by His own words. They say to Him : " The law of 
Moses says stone her, what sayest thou ? " But not a word 
did He speak. Jesus stooped down and wrote on the 
ground, as though he hadn't heard them. We don't know 
what He wrote. Perhaps " Grace and truth come by Jesus 
Christ ; " perhaps He wrote that ; but while He thus busied 
Himself they cried out the louder, demanding an answer 
to their question. So at length He lifted Himself up and 
said : " He that is without sin among you, let first him cast 
a stone at her." Never did an answer so completely serve 
its purpose ; you who never were guilty of- an offence, 
just you cast the first stone. And, amid the strangest 
silence He again stooped and wrought with His finger on 
the ground. This time, perhaps, He wrote : " I am not 
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 
And soon He rose again, but ere He did so He heard the 
patter of retreating feet on the pavement, and when now 



SINNERS CALLED TO REPENTANCE. 473 

He glanced up, He saw none but the woman. One by one 
they had been convicted by their own conscience, and 
slunk away ; not one of them there could throw the stone. 
And the Saviour looked at the woman. I can imagine the 
tears coming trickling down her cheeks as Jesus Christ, in 
kindest tones, asked her, " Woman, where are those thine 
accusers ? Hath no man condemned thee ? " And for an 
instant she could not answer. Who knows how that poor 
soul had reached her sad plight ! One of those very Phar- 
isees who had left her, perhaps had led her astray. The 
very man who had clamored loudest to condemn her was 
likely the guilty one. And there she stood alone ; the 
betrayer was left untouched, as too often he is to-day — a 
miserable, unjust, untrue sentiment, by which the man, 
who is equally guilty, is received in society and the woman 
is condemned. But at last she gained her voice and said : 
" No man, my Lord," and then, perhaps, told how her 
parents had died when she was very young. A stepmother, 
perhaps, had taken her and treated her harshly, and then 
had turned her adrift on the world. Or perhaps a drunken 
father had turned home into darkness, and she had been 
driven from it almost broken-hearted ; and so in her help- 
lessness her innocent affections were gained, and then she 
had been led astray. The Master knew it all, and when 
He heard her reply He said : " Neither do I condemn 
thee ; go, and sin no more." She had been dragged into 
the Temple to be stoned, but now Christ had delivered 
her. She came to be put to death, but she received life 
everlasting. 

My friends, the Son of God will not now condemn any 
poor fallen woman that leaves off her sins and just casts 
herself down at His feet. He will take you up just as you 
are. When in Philadelphia, a fallen woman came into the 
inquiry room and threw herself down on the floor. The 
Christian helpers talked and talked to her but couldn't get 



474 GREAT JOY. 

a word out of her; they couldn't do a thing with her. 
The Hon. George H. Stewart came to me, and said "We 
wish you would come, we don't know what to make of her." 
She was weeping bitterly, and as far off as I was I could 
hear her sobs all over the room. So I went and said : 
" What is the trouble ? " At last she spoke, and the bitter- 
ness of her despairing voice went to my heart. " I have 
fallen from everything pure, and God cannot save me ; 
there is no hope." I told her tenderly that God could 
still lift her up and save her. I said, " Are you only just 
willing to be forgiven ? A merciful Father is waiting and 
longing to pardon." She said at last she could not aban- 
don her course, as no one would give her a home. But 
that difficulty was got round by my assuring her kind 
friends would provide for her ; and then she yielded, and 
that same day was given a pleasant place in the home of a 
Presbyterian minister. But for forty-eight hours after en- 
tering her new home that poor reclaimed woman cried, day 
and night, and we w T ent for her mother, and on hearing our 
story the mother clasped her hands and cried, " Has my 
daughter really repented ? Thank God for His mercy ; my 
heart has just been breaking. I've prayed so long for 
her without result ; take me to her." And that reformed 
daughter of sin has lived consistently ever since, and when 
I was last in Philadelphia she was one of the most es- 
teemed members in that Presbyterian Church. And so 
every one of you can begin anew, and God will help and 
man will help you. Oh turn, and do not die. Seven short 
years is the allotted life of a fallen woman. Oh, escape 
your early doom, escape your infamy, and hear God's voice 
calling you to repent. Your resolution to amend will be 
borne up by hosts of friends ; never fear for that. Just 
take the decided step, and you will be helped by every 
good man and woman in the community. Oh, I beseech 
you to act right now, and settle this great question for 
time and eternity. 



SINNERS CALLED TO REPENTANCE. 475 

I heard of a mother whose daughter was led astray, and 
the poor daughter tried to hide herself, thinking her 
mother would not forgive her. The mother went to the 
town where she supposed her child had gone, but she 
hunted .and hunted unsuccessfully. The trouble is with 
the most of those girls who go astray they go under as- 
sumed names, and this daughter had done the same thing, 
and that mother couldn't find her. At last she found a 
place where fallen women resorted to, and the mother 
went to the keeper of that place and begged her to let her 
hang up her picture in the room, and consent was granted. 
Hundreds of fallen women came into that room and care- 
lessly glanced at the picture and went out. Weeks and 
months rolled on, until at length one night a poor fallen 
girl came into the room. She was going out as careless as 
she had entered, when her eye caught the picture, and, 
gazing at it for a moment, she burst into a flood of tears. 
" Where did you get it ? " she sobbed. They told her how 
her mother came there, heart-broken, and asked to have 
her picture hung up in that room, in the hope of finding 
her daughter. The girl's memory went back to her days 
of peace and purity, recalling the acts of kindness of that 
loved mother, and she then and there resolved to return. 
See how thaftnother sought for her and forgave her. Oh, 
poor fallen ones, the Son of God is seeking for you to- 
night. If you haven't got a mother to pray for you, the 
Son of God wants to be everything to you. He wants to 
receive you to Himself. Let me hold Him up to you as 
your best friend. He wants to take you to His loving bosom 
and this very night and very hour you can be raised 
if you will. There was a woman who was trying to get a 
poor girl to go back to her home. She said, " Neither my 
mother, my father, nor my brothers will forgive me. They 
won't permit me to go back." "Will you give me your ad- 
dress ? " the lady asked. The address was obtained, and 



476 GREAT JOY. 

the very next post brought a letter marked " immediately," 
and it seemed as if the whole hearts of her father and 
mother and brothers were poured out in that letter. It 
was filled with kindness, and urged her to come home and 
all would be forgotten. There is many a poor fallen girl 
in Chicago whose mother is praying for her, and whose 
heart is aching because she won't go back. Your mother 
will forgive you, and all your friends, if you will only show 
true signs of repentance. They will take you home. 

O, my friends, let this be the last night you will live in 
sin — in shame. Let this be your last night in which you 
will live in sin. Take those sins you have to Him, and He 
will forgive you. He has said, " Let the wicked forsake 
his ways," and pardon is ready. That is what our Lord 
will do. He will pardon you and make you pure. Will 
you let Him pardon you to-night. 

Just before coming down this evening I received a letter 
from a fallen woman. I've received a number during the 
past few days. Thank God the spirit is at work among 
that class ! And let me say right here, if there is any 
person here who keeps a brothel, if you will allow Christian 
ladies admittance, they will go gladly, and hold meetings. 
This idea that Christian ladies do not care for your class 
is false — as false as the blackest lie that ever €kme out of 
hell. Why, some of the first ladies of the city have lately 
been visiting these houses personally, and have been try- 
ing to save their erring sisters. A few days ago, several 
came to me and asked if I couldn't get a list of all the 
brothels of the city. I went to police head-quarters and 
got the names of the keepers and addresses, and gave it to 
these Christian women, and since then, many houses have 
been visited. These charges that Christian women will 
not have them in their homes are equally false. The 
other night a lady of culture was on her knees with a poor 
one, who told the lady that she was a fallen girl, and did 



SINNERS CALLED TO REPENTANCE. 477 

not know where to go if she didn't go back to her brothel. 
" Come and stay at my house," said the lady, " I will take 
care of you," and when the girl got up from her knees, the 
lady saw she was a poor colored girl. That good Christian 
kept her till she got her a good situation. Another one 
not long ago received the truth, and one of our ministers 
wrote to her parents, got a pass and sent her home to her 
forgiving parents. Let me ask you not to believe that we 
are cruel ; that we are hard-hearted ; that we do not care 
for the fallen women, but only for the abandoned men. 
We have a place to shelter you, and if that is not large 
enough, the business men will put up another. They will 
do everything for you if you are only repentant ; they will 
not try to keep you down and cast you off. If you are 
sincere, there are hundreds and thousands of people in this 
city whose hearts will go out to you. But I want to read 
this letter : 

"Chicago, Dec. 14. 

" Mr. Moody, — Many fallen women in this city would, 
in these days, gladly change their mode of life and seek 
Christ and restoration to the homes and hearts of parents 
and friends whom they, weakly, left many, many bitter 
years and months ago, if only they could see some way to 
an honorable living and friendly recognition and help 
when they should seek these." 

Now, let me say here that any young woman who wants 
reclamation ought not to look into the future. Say to 
yourselves, "I will be saved to-night, come what will." 

" You say, ' Seek first the kingdom of Christ ; ' but, my 
dear brother (for such you seem even to me), why do this 
if only returning shame awaits us ? " 

I wish every fallen woman would think as this one does ; 
why, I would be a brother to you all. Thank God, I've 
got a brother's heart for all of you. I wish every one of 



478 GREAT JOY. 

you would feel that I want to do you good — that I only 
want to lift you up. 

" Suppose a hundred fallen women of this city were at 
the Tabernacle to-night — no doubt more than this number 
will be there — and that these should seek Christ and find 
forgiveness, for you assure us there is full forgiveness 
for even us, so that these scarlet stains should be ' whiter 
than snow — where, I ask, shall we live ? What shall we do ? 

" We must return ere the echo of the last prayer in that 
Tabernacle has died away, to the apartments which have 
only known our bitter shame, and again meet the devil in 
his chosen home." 

Let me say, again, that no woman in this audience need 
do that. There will be homes open for you. God will 
provide for you if you will trust Him. I hope there will 
be hundreds here to-night who will say, " I will never 
return to that place. I will never go back to that house of 
shame ; I will never meet the devil in those houses more ; 
I will rather die in the poor-house than do it ; I turn my 
back for ever upon death and hell." 

" No home of parent or friend, or praying Christian who 
joined in your prayer at the Tabernacle for us, would offer 
our weary bodies shelter there, or our willing hands labor 
wherewith honest bread might be earned. No Christian's 
purse affords to-morrow's bread." 

Dear friends, let the morrow take care of itself. Don't 
be looking at the future. Just walk by faith. That's what 
every Christian must do. 

" The very ones who came here to pray for us go away 
scorning us ; and while with the virtuous wife and mother 
and the pure maiden we would plead a common Saviour, 
they would thrust us from them. What can we do ? Who 
will help us? 

" There remains only a life of shame and an unwept 
death, physical and eternal, for us. Hopelessly 

"One of Them." 



" COME." 



We have for our subject this afternoon the precious lit- 
tle word " Come." I want to call your attention first to the 
" Come " in the 53d chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah. 
" Incline your ear, and come unto Me. Hear, and your 
souls shall live ; and I will make an everlasting covenant 
with you, even the sure mercies of David." 

" Incline your ear and come unto Me ; hear and your 
soul shall live." Now, I find if we get people to listen — 
to pause and hear the voice of God, it isn't long before they 
are willing to follow that voice ; but it is so hard to get 
people to stop and listen for a moment. The din of the 
world makes such a noise that the people don't hear the 
voice — that still small voice. He says, " Incline your ear 
and come unto Me." Now, if we could only get a 1 ! the friends 
in this audience to incline their ears this afternoon — not 
only your natural ears but the ears of your soul, you could 
be saved to-day. But Satan does not want you to do this • 
he does all he can to keep your ears from hearing. He 
makes you think about yourself, about your sons, your 
homes ; but, my friends, let us forget all those things to-day 
— let us forget all our surroundings, and close our eyes to 
the world, and just try and listen to the word of God, and 
come and hear what He has to say. " Incline your ear and 
come unto Me ; hear and your soul shall live." Now, let 
us turn to the tenth chapter of Romans, where we see, 
" Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." 
Now, it is not my words I want to have you to listen to— it is 
not my words I want you to hear this afternoon, but I want 



480 GREAT JOY. 

you to hear the words of this loving King who calls you to 
Himself. What does He say ? In another place He says : 
" Behold, I stand at the door and knock ; if any man hear 
My voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup 
with him and he with Me," or " if any woman," or any one ; 
that's what it means, my friends — "hear My voice and 
open the door, I will come in to her, and will sup with her 
and she with Me." I heard of a little child sometime ago 
who was burned. The mother had gone out and left her 
three children at home. The eldest left the room, and the 
remaining two began to play with the fire, and set the 
place in a blaze. When the youngest of the two saw what 
she had done she went into a little cupboard and fastened 
herself in. The iemaining child went to the door and 
knocked and knocked, crying to her to open the door and 
let her take her out of the burning building, but she was 
too frightened to do it. It seems to me as if this was the 
way with hundreds and thousands in this city. He stands 
and knocks, but they've got their hearts barred and bolted, 
because they don't know that He has come only to bless 
them. May God help you to hear, and if you listen to Him 
and bring your burdens to Him He will bless you. He is 
able to open the ears of every one here if you let Him in. 
I was up here at the hotel the other night, and I had the 
door locked and bolted, and some one came and rapped. 
I shouted " Come in !" The man tried to come in, but he 
couldn't ; I had to get up and unlock the door before he 
could enter. That's the way with many people to-day* 
They've got the door bolted and barred ; but if you only 
open it to Him He will come in. 

" If any man hear my voice and open the door I will 
come in and sup with him and he with Me." Now, my 
friends, can you hear it ? Can you hear God's voice speak- 
ing through his own word ? " Incline your ear and come 
unto Me." Just listen. You know sometimes, when you 



"COME." 481 

hear a man speaking whose voice you don't hear very well, 
and you want to hear every word the man says, you put 
your hand up to your ear to catch the sound clearer. Now, 
listen. God says, " Incline your ear and come unto Me ; 
hear and your souls shall live ; and I will make an ever- 
lasting covenant with you." Now, is it not true ? Can't 
you hear that loving voice speaking to you, and won't you 
obey that voice and let Him save you ? But I can imagine 
some of you saying, " I can't hear anything." Take your 
ears to Him and He will make you hear. 

Now let me take you to another course. While John 
and his disciples were standing, Jesus came along, and 
John said : " Behold the Lamb of God ! " and Jesus said : 
" What seek ye ? " " Where dwellest thou ? " he asked ; to 
which He replied ; " Come and see ; " and they just obeyed 
Him and never left Him. My friends, if I could introduce 
you to Christ — could just get you to catch one glimpse of 
Him ; if you could but see the king in all His beauty ; if 
you could but see Him in all His loveliness, you would 
never forsake Him, for we " shall grow up before Him as 
a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground ; he Hath 
no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him there 
is no beauty that we should desire Him." Follow Him as 
your Saviour. In order to appreciate Him you have to be 
brought to Him, but if sin has come between you and Him, 
I cannot tell you anything about Him. It is just like 
telling a blind man about the beauties of nature, the love- 
liness of the flowers, or of the world. That is the way, if 
sin stands between you and Him, and when Christians try 
to tell you about the beauties of Christianity they fail, but 
if you come and have an interview with Him you will see 
that you cannot help but love Him ; you will see that you 
cannot but forsake all and follow Him. I remember once 
hearing of a child who was born blind. He grew up to be 
almost a man, when a skilful phvsician thought he could 

31 



482 GREAT JOY. 

give the man his sight. He was put under the doctor's 
treatment, and for a long time he worked, till at last he 
succeeded. But he wouldn't let the man see the light of 
the sun all at once, lest it would strike him blind. It had 
to be done gradually. So he put a lot of bandages upon 
his eyes and removed one after another until the last one 
was reached, and when it was taken off the young man 
began to see. When he saw the beauties of the world he 
upbraided his friends for not telling him of the beauties of 
nature. " Why, we tried to tell you about the beauties of 
the world, but we could not," they said. And so it is with 
us. All that we can do is to tell you to come and see — 
come and see the loveliness of Christ. 

I can imagine some of you saying ;"Iam blind, I cannot 
see any beauty in Him. Bring your blindness to Him as 
you bring your deafness and He will give you sight, as He 
did with the blind Bartimeus — as He did with all the blind 
men on earth. There was never a blind man who came to 
Him requesting his sight whose request was not granted, 
and there is not a blind soul in this assembly but will be 
healed if you come to Him. He says that's what He came 
for, to give sight to the blind. If you cannot see any 
beauty in Him pray to God to give you sight. 

The next come is in the prophesies of Isaiah. " Come, 
now, and let us reason together," saith the Lord : " though 
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; 
though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 
I find a great many people say their reason stands between 
them and God. Now, let me say here, the religion of 
Jesus is a matter of revelation, not of investigation. No 
one ever found out Christ by reason. It is a matter of 
revelation. Now see what he says, " Come now " — that 
means this afternoon — " though your sins be as scarlet, 
they shall be white as snow." Now He puts a pardon in the 
sinner's face. " Your sins may be as scarlet, they shall be 



* come:* 4 8 3 

white as snow." Take the scarlet in that lady's shawl. It 
is a fast color. You cannot wash it out and make it white ; 
if you tried you would only destroy the shawl. But He 
will make your sins white as snow, though they be as scarlet, 
if you come to Him. Just come to Him as you are, and 
instead of reasoning ask him to take them away. Then 
He will reason it out with you. The natural man does 
riot understand spiritual things, but when a man is born 
of the Spirit, then it is that the spiritual things are brought 
out to him. A great many people want to investigate — 
want to reason out the Bible from back to back, but He 
wants us first to take a pardon. That's God's method of 
reasoning. He puts a pardon in the face of the sinner. 
" Come now." Do you think there is not reason in this ? 
Suppose the whole plan of salvation was reasoned out to 
you, why death might step in before the end of the reason- 
ing was jeached. So God puts a pardon first. If you will 
be influenced to-day you will just bring your reason to 
Him, and ask Him to give you wisdom to see divine 
things, and He will do it. " If any of you lack wisdom, let 
him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and up- 
braideth not, and it shall be given liberally." The idea 
that this reason that God hath given man should keep him 
from Christ. 

A number of years ago as I was coming out of a daily 
prayer meeting in one of our Western cities, a lady came 
up to me and said," I want to have you see my husband 
and ask him to come to Christ." She said, "I want to 
have you go and see him." She told me his name, and it 
was of a man I had heard of before. " Why," said I, " I 
can't go and see your husband. He is a booked infidel. 
I can't argue with him. He is a good deal older than I 
am, and it would be out of place. Then I am not much 
for infidel argument." "Well, Mr. Moody," she says, 
" that ain't what he wants. He's got enough of that. Just 



484 GREAT JOY. 

ask him to come to the Saviour." She urged me so hard 
and so strong, that I consented to go. I went to the office 
where the Judge was doing business, and told him what I 
had come for. He laughed at me. " You are very fool- 
ish," he said, and began to argue with me. I said, " I 
don't think it will be profitable for me to hold an argu- 
ment with you. I have just one favor I want to ask of you, 
and that is, that when you are converted you will let me 
know." " Yes," said he, " I will do that. When I am con- 
verted, I will let you know" — with a good deal of sarcasm. 
I went off, and requests for prayer were sent here and to 
Fulton street, New York, and I thought the prayer there 
and of that wife would be answered if mine were not. A 
year and a half after I was in that city, and a servant came 
to the door and said : " There is a man in the front parlor 
who wishes to see you." I found the Judge there. He 
said : " I promised I would let you know when I was con- 
verted. I've been converted." " Well," said I, " I'm glad 
to hear it ! tell me all about it." I had heard it from other 
lips, but I wanted to hear it from his own. He said his wife 
had gone out to a meeting one night and he was home 
alone, and while he was sitting there by the fire he thought ; 
" Supposing my wife is right, and my children are right : 
suppose there is a heaven and hell, and I shall be separa- 
ted from them." His first thought was : " I don't be- 
lieve a word of it." The second thought came, " You 
believe in the God that created you, and that the God 
that created you is able to teach you. You believe that 
God can give your life." " Yes, the God that created me 
can give me life. I was too proud to get down on my knees 
by the fire, and I said, ' O God, teach me.' And as I 
prayed, I don't understand it, but it began to get very dark, 
and my heart got very heavy. I was afraid to tell my wife 
when she came to bed and I pretended to be asleep. She 
kneeled down beside that bed and I knew she was pray- 



« come:* 485 

ing for me. I kept crying, "0 God, save me; O God, take 
away this burden/' but it grew darker, and the load grew 
heavier and heavier. All the way to my office I kept cry- 
ing, " O God, take away this load of guilt : " I gave my clerks 
a holiday, and just closed my office and locked the door. 
I fell down on my face : I cried in agony to the Lord, "O 
Lord, for Christ's sake, take away this guilt.' I don't 
know how it was, but it began to grow very light. I said, I 
wonder if this isn't what they call conversion. I think I 
will go and ask the minister if I am not converted. I met 
my wife at the door and said. " My dear, I've been con- 
verted. " She looked in amazement. " Oh it's a fact, 
I've been converted ! We went into that drawing-rooom 
and knelt down by the sofa and prayed to God to bless 
us." The old Judge said to me, the tears trickling down 
his cheeks. " Mr. Moody, I've enjoyed life more in the 
last three months than in all the years of my life put togeth- 
er." If there is an infidel here — if there is a skeptical one 
here, ask God to give wisdom to come now. Let us reason 
together, and if you become acquainted with God the day 
will not go before you receive light from Him. 

The next " Come " I want to call your attention to is a 
very sweet one. He says. " Come and reason, " Come 
and see, " and now we have " Come and rest. " What 
this world wants is rest. Every man, every woman is in 
pursuit of it, and how many of us have found ? How many 
are bearing burdens about our hearts always — how many 
have come into this hall to-day with a great burden on 
their hearts ? What does He say : " Come unto Me, all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. " 
Now a great many people have an idea that they get rid of 
their burdens themselves, but they must come to Him it 
they want to be relieved. That's what Christ came for. 
Come to Him. " He hath borne our griefs and carried our 
or rows." There could not be a sweeter "Come" than this. 



486 GREAT JOY. 

How many mothers are bearing burdens for their children 
— how many because of their sens, or perhaps you have 
husbands who have proved unfaithful, or may be you are 
widows who have been without support. The future may 
look dark to you : but hear the loving voice of the Savior, 
" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest. " There is not a soul here — I don't 
care what the burden may be — in this vast audience, but 
can lay their burden on the Lord Jesus Christ, and He 
will bear it for you. We can be released ; we have found 
a resting place, and that is in the loving bosom of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. There is a hymn written by Dr. Andrew 
Bonner which can express this much better than I can 
Let me read it : 

I heard the voice of Jesus say : 

" Come unto me and rest ; 
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 

Thy head upon my breast." 

I came to Jesus as I was, 

Weary and worn and sad ; 

I found in Him a resting-place, 

And He has made me glad. 

I heard the voice of Jesus say : 

" Behold I freely give 
The living water — thirsty one, 

Stoop down and drink and live !" 

I came to Jesus and I drank 

Of that life-giving stream ; 
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived 

And now I live in Him. 



/ 



I heard the voice of Jesus say : 
" I am this dark world's light ; 

Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise, 
And all thy day be bright." 



"COME." 487 

I looked»at Jesus and I found 

In Him my Star, my Sun. 
And in that light of Life I'll walk 

Till travelling days are done. 

Oh, my friends, if you want rest to-day, come to Him. 
He stands with His arms outstretched and says : " Come 
to Me and rest." Does the world satisfy you ? Are not 
the griefs of this world crushing many a heart here ? Hear 
the voice of Jesus : " Come and rest." The world cannot 
take it from you ; the world's crosses and trials will not 
tear it from you ; He will give you peace and comfort and 
rest if you but come. 

" The next " come " is " come and drink and eat." You 
don't have to pay anything. You know it is hard for a 
man to get a tax on water unless when it has to be brought 
into the city. But this water is always without price, and 
salvation is like a river, flowing at the feet of every one ; 
and all you have to do is to stoop down and drink of this 
living water and never die. The world cannot give you 
comfort — cannot give you water to satisfy your thirst, and 
every man and woman in this world is thirsty. That's the 
way our places of amusement are filled. People are con- 
stantly thirsting for something. But how are they filled 
with those amusements ? They are as thirsty as ever. But 
if they drink the waters that He offers they will have a 
fountain in them springing up into everlasting life. I re- 
member coming down a river with some wounded soldiers. 
The water was very muddy, and as we had no niters they 
had to drink the dirty water, which did not satisfy their 
thirst. I remember a soldier saying, " O that I had a 
draught of water from my father's well." If you drink o 
the living water your soul will never thirst again. Not only 
does He say " Come and drink of that living water," but 
He says " Come and eat." In the fifty-fifth chapter of Isa- 
iah you are invited to come and eat. You know all that 



4 88 GREAT JOY. 

the children of Israel had to do in the wilderness was just 
to pick up the manna and eat. They didn't have to make 
it. And people had just to stoop down and pick up the 
manna and eat, and drink from the flinty rock when the 
water flowed. And to-day the provision is brought to the 
door of your hearts. You haven't to go down to the earth 
for it, or to go up to the skies for it. It is here, and all 
you've got to do is to eat. 

You know almost the last words of Christ after his res- 
urrection, when, having a little fish, He said to his disciples 
" Come and dine." O, what a sweet invitation — the invi- 
tation of the Master to his disciples, " Come and dine." I 
invite you now to come and dine with Him ; He will 
quench that thirst ; He will satisfy your hunger, and all 
you've got to do is to take Him at His word. 

Is there a poor thirsty one here to-day ? I bid you come 
and drink of the fountain of living water ; I bid you come 
and eat of the heavenly bread ; yes, the bread made in 
heaven, the bread that angels feed on — Christ himself is 
the bread of life. 

Now, a many people make a great mistake about ac- 
cepting Christ. They think they've got something to do ; 
think they've got to do some work, or that they've got to 
pray and wrestle before taking Him ; they think it is a 
question of performances whether they are saved or not. 
Now, it is a question of simply taking what God offers you. 
I remember when I was out on the Pacific coast, a man 
toek me through his house, out on his lands, and showed 
me his orchards, and then said : " Mr. Moody, you are a 
guest of mine, and I want you to feel perfectly at home ; 
do what you like." Well, after this man said this, you 
don't suppose if I wanted an orange I was going under the 
tree to pray that it would fall into my pocket ? I just went 
up boldly and plucked what I wanted. And so the bread 
of heaven is offered to us, and all we've got to do is to go 



« come:' 489 

boldly up and take it. This is what God wants you to do. 
Everything is prepared for you. 

There is a class, too, who say : " But I'm afraid I'll not 
hold out." How many people are stumbling over this ! 
Now, if you come boldly up to the throne you'll get all the 
support you need — " Let us therefore come boldly unto 
the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find 
grace to help in time of need." There is a passage for 
you ; that ought to be sufficient. And there is not a woman 
here to-day but can be kept, from this very day and this 
very hour, from evil — " For I the Lord thy God will keep 
you, without spot or wrinkle, and without blemish." Some 
of the vilest men who have ever trodden this earth have 
been saved with the grace of God. Some have been kept 
sixty or seventy years merely by the grace of God, and 
never wavered. " Come boldly to the throne of grace " 
and you will get power. That is sufficient. Won't you 
take Him at His word ? It seems to me that it is madness 
not to take the gift offered us by God. 

Let me call attention to another " come." My friends, 
the Bible is full of them, and you can't say if you don't 
come there have been no invitations. He says : " Come 
to the marriage." Now, you young ladies like marriages 
pretty well. Let a marriage come off in a church, and 
hundreds will be there ; and probably next night, at the 
prayer meeting, there will scarcely be a dozen of you pre- 
sent. Now here is a marriage, and there is not a lady here 
whom God does not want to be present at the marriage 
feast. There is an invitation. And here is another " come " : 
" Come and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world." God has got an inheritance for 
every one of you. The time will soon come, if you accept 
Christ and become as His bride, when you shall hear the 
voice of Him saying to you : " Come and inherit the king- 
dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." 



490 GREAT JOY. 

What a mistake it will be, my friends, if you will not hear 
that invitation given to you ! There is an inheritance in- 
corruptible in the heavens, a building not made with 
hands, and He wants every one to enter into this inherit- 
ance, and so it is your privilege to be present at the mar- 
riage feast and receive the inheritance if you will. 

You know the first "come" in the Bible is in 
regard to salvation. It was given to Noah ; God said, 
" come thou, and all thy house into the ark," not a part of 
them, but "all thy house." That is the first "come," 
in the Bible, and all through that blessed book it is 
repeated ; and now we come to the last one. It seems as 
if the Bible was created by this word " come." " The 
spirit and the bride say come, and let him that is athirst 
come, and whosoever will, let him taste the water of life 
freely." There is our invitation, as broad as the world 
itself. And if God says you are to come in there, no 
power in heaven, or earth, or hell can stop you ! He bids 
you come. Now bear in mind it is your sins God wants, 
and not your faith. You have nothing about you that He 
wants except your sins. People are continually trying to 
come to Him by their faith, by their feelings, by their tears, 
by their good deeds, by their works ; but you have to come 
to Him just as you are. There is not a woman present 
but can roll off every sin and leave them in this taber- 
nacle. 

Now the question comes, What right have you to come ? 
Why, because the King invites you. Suppose Queen 
Victoria had sent me an invitation to be present at 
Windsor at a feast given in honor of the marriage of one 
of her sons to a princess of Russia. I take the cars to 
New York, then the boat to Liverpool, then I would run 
down to London, where I would get the train to Windsor 
Castle. There is a sentry walking up and down in front 
of the gate. If I hadn't my invitation he would refuse me 



" COME." 



491 



admittance ; but there is not a soldier in the British army 
can keep me out, because I've got the Queen's invitation. 
But suppose the man looks at me and says : " You can't 
go into the presence of the Queen with those clothes ; you 
are not fit to stand before the Queen." That is none of 
his business ; that's hers. So the invitation comes from 
Him, and He wants you to come and he will clothe you in 
garments fit for his presence You will be stripped of 
every rag of self-righteousness, and a robe of spotlessness 
will be put upon you. 

A great many people say, " I want to become clean be- 
fore I come to Christ." Now, my friends, that is the 
devil's work. He tries to get people to believe that they 
can't come without getting rid of their sins, but as I've 
said, all through the scriptures he bids you come as you 
are. We cannot take away our sins ; come to Him and 
He will blot them out. A few years ago in London, there 
used to be a good many little children stolen to act as 
chimney sweeps. A child was stolen from a wealthy 
family, and a great reward was offered, but it couldn't be 
found. This child had been kidnapped. One day he was 
sent up a chimney and came down on the other side, and 
into a beautiful room. The little fellow was bewildered. 
A lady was sitting there, and recognized him as her son, 
and although the little fellow was covered with smut, she 
ran to him, and drew him to her bosom, and that is the 
way Christ will receive you. You needn't try to get rid of 
one particle of sin. He wants to save you as you are. 
" Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the waters of 
life freely." Will you come to-day. The spirit and the 
bride invite you this afternoon. Now I want to ask you 
what are you going to do with these ten loving invi- 
tations to-day — " Come and hear," " Come and see," 
" Come and reason," " Come and rest," " Come and eat 
and drink," " Come and dine," " Come and find grace," 



492 GREAT JOY. 

1 Come unto the marriage," " Come and inherit the king- 
dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," 
" Whosoever will, let him come." Ask God to help you 
to come to-day. If I were in your place I would settle 
this question before I left this building ; I would just press 
up to the kingdom of God and take Him at His word. 
Now would you just all lift up your hearts in prayer. Let 
every Christian pray for every soul here to-day out of 
Christ. Let us now just unite in this one petition that 
every soul in this building may come to Christ to-day. 



WORK. 



I want to speak this morning about work. You know 
that was the key-note of the meeting when we first com- 
menced here, and we want to have it the key-note of our 
message as we leave. Faith is an act of the mind, and 
work is the outward sign of faith. If a man has true faith 
in Christ he cannot help working for Christ. You cannot 
have fire without heat ; no more can you have faith with- 
out works. " Faith without works," the apostle tells us, 
" is dead." It is dead, and the quicker buried the better ; 
get it out of the way. The moment that faith fails in 
works, that moment it dies. " Show me thy faith without 
thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works." 
If a man has faith in Christ, he cannot help working ; it is 
second nature to him. Those men who are trying to serve 
Christ without wotks are having a pretty hard time of it. 
They neither enjoy the world nor the church, and have a 
great deal of contempt for themselves. Now when a man 
gets outside of himself and goes to work for others, he is 
trebly blessed, he has floods of love, and peace, and joy 
the whole of the time. People may get to heaven without 
works perhaps, but as Job says, it will be by the " skin of 
their teeth." It'll not be an abundant entrance that will 
be administered unto them. And what they did do, if not 
with a right motive, will be swept away in that hour when 
God comes and tries men's faith. 

Faithful Christians are those heeding Christ's words in 
the gospel according to John, fifteenth chapter and fourth 
and fifth verses : " Abide in Me and I in you. As the 



494 GREAT JOY. 

branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the 
vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the 
vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me and I 
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without Me 
ye can do nothing." There in that chapter it says in the 
second verse, "and every branch that beareth fruit, he 
purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit. " So it is 
abiding in Christ that bringeth forth much fruit. I think 
you will find in all the churches those who bring forth 
scarcely anything, I was going to say nothing. I don't 
know how you can call them Christians. Again there are 
others who bring forth, some thirty-fold, some sixty, and 
some a hundred, and it is those Christians that abide in 
Christ that bring forth an hundred-fold : they can't help 
it. When a branch abideth in the vine it produces good 
fruit. You have a good apple-tree, and it can't help bear- 
ing apples ; it can't help bringing forth good fruit. So 
every Christian is to abide continually in Christ ; not 
through four or five weeks when there are special services, 
but through the three hundred and sixty-five days in the 
year. These special meetings here, are about drawing to 
a close, and some here this morning are perhaps asking, 
what is going to become of us, what are we going to do ? 
some perhaps tremble lest they shall go back to their old 
lukewarmness. 

Now my friends, if you are going to truly work for 
Christ, you must carry this revival spirit in your bosoms 
throughout the 365 days, throughout all the year. If a 
man cannot be used of God, what does he want to live for ? 
It is the privilege of every child of God to be revived all 
the time. That is what we want to do. Why, in the. 
primitive days, there were added daily to the Lord such as 
should be saved. If we abide in the Lord there will be 
just such results now. The trouble lies in our going away 
from the Lord, so that the Lord cannot use us and we can- 



WORK. 495 

not bring forth fruit. How are we to abide in Christ ? 
Study the word of God. It is the only book that tells 
about Christ. The Bible is God's word, and if you want 
to know about Christ, study in its pages about His life, 
His character, His acts. Find out who He is, and what 
He is. The man that is abiding with Christ would rather 
be with him than with the world ; he would far rather be 
an hour with the word of God, than a year in worldly 
society. Look at the third chapter of the second epistle 
to Timothy, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth verses : 
" And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scrip- 
tures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is 
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
" that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnish- 
ed unto all good works." Just listen : " That the man of 
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works." And with this, let me read those words from the 
first chapter of James, twenty-second verse : " But be ye 
doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your 
own selves." If we had as many doers of the word as we 
have hearers, in Chicago, what a mighty work could be 
done. You have been pretty good, yes, very good hearers, 
but I have a pretty serious charge to bring against nine 
out of every ten of you. You have come here, but when 
the benediction was through, you have just got on your 
hats, and gathered up your shawls, and got out as quick 
as you could. You haven't liked to talk to inquirers. 
Some of you are Christians of thirty or forty years stand- 
ing. You have listened to sermons all these years, and 
gone Sunday after Sunday, to the regular services of the 
sanctuary, but what have you been personally doing; 
that's the question ? Oh, be not only hearers, but doers ; 
that is just the working spirit we want in Chicago now. 



496 GREAT JOY. 

We have had eleven weeks of these special meetings, and 
many of you have listened remarkably well. For eleven 
weeks you've been listening, and now's the time for action. 
Now's the time to be doers of the word, you've been hear- 
ers long enough. Let every one put a shoulder to the 
work, and push it on. These past three months have been 
spent in getting the army ready and equipped ; now let it 
move ahead. Let all take up and carry on the work. 
Let Christians wake up and go to work. More conver- 
sions may be made in the next three months than in the 
last three if you Christians will do your duty. 

I have heard some say " yes, but I haven't got the 
ability." God will strengthen you, my friends, God is 
with you, and all you have to do is to ask of Him, wisdom, 
power, and strength. The God of all power and might is 
at your side if you call on Him. Don't you see if each 
one of you does but a little, how much you will accomplish. 
Mr. Spurgeon said to some discouraged students, as they 
were going out to preach, " Well, just go ahead, there's a 
good many of you ; you go into the churches and you find 
a great many Christians there, and when all are gathered 
together, there's a great deal of strength ; " and then he 
illustrated by telling about Moses and the frogs : " I'll 
bring great frogs on you," said Moses to Pharaoh. 
"Frogs," said Pharaoh, "what do I care for frogs!" 
" But," said Moses, " there's a good many of them," and 
the old king found it out. They swarmed into his bed- 
chamber, jumped into the kneading trough, sprawled out 
upon the throne, he could not sit down, got on to the royal 
table, into the royal lap— frogs, frogs, frogs, everywhere, 
he couldn't step without " squashing " one. Yes, there 
were a good many of them ; and there are a good many 
Christians. " Let them just take a look at the frogs of 
Egypt ; let them just go into every room and corner, and 
attic in Chicago, and bring men the blessed gospel. Don't 



WORK, 



497 



you see how much, if you are only united, may be done in 
the next three months. Oh, be ye doers, and not hearers 
only. " If any be a hearer of the word," says James, " and 
not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural 
face in a glass ; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his 
way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he 
was. But whosoever looketh into the perfect law of 
liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful 
hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed 
in his deed." 

Now what we want, my friends, is to get to work. A 
great many people are called pillars of the church, because 
they pay their pew rents. They never go out to Wednes- 
day night meetings ; you never think of seeing them there. 
They will get out every fine Sunday morning, but no one 
expects they will turn out on Sunday night. But they say 
they've "the root of the matter in them." Suppose you 
have a flower garden, and take a friend out to see the 
flowers, but there isn't one to be seen. Will you say, 
" Well, it's just all full of roots." You might say so just 
as properly as the fruitless Christian. The root of the 
matter is down there, sure enough, but there's never any- 
thing crops out. These " do-less " Christians, these drones, 
doing nothing, are too numerous ; there's too many of 
these " pillars " in the church. We want workers ; we 
want these men to come out, and then help bring others 
out. The time is coming when, if people will not come 
and hear the gospel, the churches must go to them. Let 
workers go and seek them out, and hold cottage prayer 
meetings at their houses, and talk with them about Christ 
and Heaven. Be ye doers. 

A great many people would be workers, but they are 
afraid of being called " odd." They want just Christianity 
enough to make them respectable, but enough of the world 
to keep them from being considered odd or peculiar. The 



498 GREAT JOY. 

result is, they're wretched people in the world. They have 
no spiritual power. They never take a class in Sunday 
school, or if they do, there are no conversions in it. They 
forget those words in Titus, second chapter, fourteenth 
verse, " Who gave Himself for us that He might redeem 
us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar peo- 
ple, zealous of good works." Now, I am a poor sailor; I 
never go on the sea but I get sick, yet I think I would be 
willing to sail around the whole world to find an entire 
church — minister, deacons, stewards, all the church officers 
and members — a "peculiar " people of this sort. I would 
find a church that would make the world tremble. I don't 
believe the world ever saw a church all of them peculiar. 
You find in every age, when God wants any work done, He 
always brings out a peculiar man. I suppose Elijah was 
the most peculiar man perhaps that ever lived. He was 
the oddest genius that people ever hit upon. Daniel was 
the most peculiar man in all Babylon. The courtiers of 
Nebuchadnezzar undoubtedly called him puritanical and a 
bigot. Yes, in the midst of idolaters, this old Hebrew was 
a praying man ; but how God blessed him. Moses was 
the most peculiar man in Egypt, but how God blessed him. 
Always, the men and women most used of God have been 
peculiar, and Christian workers must be peculiar. But 
that is just what many don't want ; they're afraid people 
will say they are peculiar. Now let me say no man or 
woman is fit to work for God until they become peculiar in 
this Bible sense, — until they give up sinful, worldly plea- 
sures, and separate themselves to live and work for God. 
Then see how God will bless them. God grant that all 
may become chosen vessels and meet for the Master's use. 
Then in Titus, third chapter, first verse : " Put them in 
mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey 
magistrates, to be ready for every good work." " Ready 
for all good works ; " if all heeded this, what could not be 



WORK. 



499 



done ! How many times I have been down at these meet- 
ings night after night, and have spoken to Christian people 
who have been here, — some of them professing His name 
for forty years — and asked them to speak to some poor 
inquiring soul, but the answer's come, " oh Mr. Moody, 
don't ask me, don't you ask me." They've been in the 
church these long years and can't say a word to dying souls ! 
Shame on the Christianity of the nineteenth century ! May 
God have mercy on each one of us and forgive us our 
shortcomings ! These people want to have you talk about 
their souls and tell them the way of life. If it is not a 
good work to talk to a soul burdened with sin, what is a 
good work ? What have these church members been about 
all these years ? What have they been doing, that they 
are not ready now, after fifteen, thirty and forty years of 
professedly Christian life, to talk with anxious souls? 
When will you be ready ? Oh my friends, will you not get 
ready at once ? What power is there in the greatest army 
in the world, if it don't know how to use its weapons ? 
An army of five hundred real soldiers could rout them and 
send them all flying. What each child of God wants is to 
get ready. If there is one Christian in this place this 
morning that has not had the joy of bringing a soul to God, 
I would not go out of this Tabernacle until I had gone 
into one of the inquiry rooms and asked some Christian 
brother or sister, " Won't you pray for my unprofitable life, 
my barren life, my life so fruitless, with nothing to show 
but leaves. Oh friends, is it not our highest privilege and 
joy as well as duty to bring souls to Jesus ? Let us go 
to work ! Let us bring converts to the Saviour ! Let us 
bring all men to Christ ! 

Will you look at the eighth verse of the same chapter : 
" This is a faithful saying, and these things I will affirm 
constantly that they which have believed in God might be 
careful to maintain good works." Now, you know the 



5 oo GREAT JOY. 

charge is sometimes made that Evangelical Christians preach 
salvation by faith alone, — that we are justified by faith and 
as soon as we believe we are saved. Now that is not the 
entire New Testament teaching. To be sure we are saved 
by faith, but it is only by a faith that manifests itself in 
good works. If we believe otherwise we are staking our 
faith on some creed, some church, some particular minis- 
ter, and not on Christ, who said, even at twelve years of 
age. "Wist ye not that I must be about my father's busi- 
ness." The life of Jesus was one succession of good 
works, and if we would follow His example we cannot help 
working. 

" Be careful to maintain good works." I suppose that 
means you are to carefully maintain the church. Let me 
say to all, maintain the church. Let me say this especially 
to all young converts. I have heard that of these some 
say they can be Christians and not unite with the church, 
and I was told last night that one of them said I didn't 
belong to the church. That is a mistake. I tried as soon 
as I was converted to enter the church, but at first they 
would not let me ; some doubted whether I was converted. 
But I have been in the bosom of the church ever since, 
and have never seen the day or the hour that I would be 
out of it. I believe it is the dearest institution on earth, 
that there is no institution to be compared with it. It was 
the church that Christ died for, because he loved it so 
dearly. 

If a man is born of God he should take shelter in the 
Church, that it may be to him a nursing mother. To do 
so ought to be held not only the duty which it is, but a 
glorious privilege. I have no sympathy with those people 
who stay out of the Church and simply throw stones at it, 
and proclaim what it ought to be. If we can make it 
better, let us go in. Don't expect the Church of God upon 
earth to be without failings. If the Church is cold, go in 



WORK. 5 oi 

and warm it up ; let us each do what we can to make it 
better. And then the Sunday-school — let us make that 
better. Go out on the streets and get those children, and 
teach them the words of life ; that is the way to maintain 
good works. Bible societies should be maintained ; Bible 
readings should be maintained — whatever the good work 
is, carefully maintain it. If you have wealth, send that 
money around — use the Lord's money for the Lord. I 
hope to see the day when men will seek investments for 
the Lord, as they now seek them out for themselves. If a 
man has a few thousand dollars to invest for himself, how 
he seeks out the best investment ! On this very ground 
why should not Christian men seek out investments for the 
Lord ? I don't believe any other investments will bring 
in better dividends. Yes, I hope the time is coming more 
and more, when rich men will " carefully maintain good 
works. And to all I say, see that everything that is good 
is maintained ; cheer these young converts ; do not be com- 
plaining ; be just as careful — every one of you, new con- 
verts and all — be just as careful to maintain good works 
as to accept Christ. 

Now, look at the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
second chapter and seventeenth verse : " Comfort your 
hearts and stablish you in every good word and work." 
Now, what we want is to get " stablished," to have a set- 
tled plan or method of doing good works. I have been a 
Superintendent of Sabbath-schools for some years, and 
noticed this, that teachers who swung around from place 
to place, who took in Dr. Kittredge's church, then the 
First Methodist, and then this and then that, have always 
proved failures. Now, I like these men that take hold of 
classes and don't give them up, and who are in their regu- 
lar pews every Sunday, and are not drawn away by some 
eloquent preacher — some preacher from abroad, who 
happens to be filling a South-side or North-side pulpit. 



5 o2 GREAT JOY. 

Fifty-two Sundays in the year they are there ; you know- 
where to find them, they're right there at the accustomed 
post of duty. All the while their influence increases. But 
these teachers, and others that are all the time running 
here and there, never accomplish much. 

A good many people are like a bundle of shavings — a 
spark falls, and quickly the shavings are all gone, and 
there's left scarcely any ashes even. My friends, ten 
thousand such Christians are not worth one that makes 
constancy his motto. We don't want any revival Christians 
— got enough of them ; don't want any Sunday Christians 
—got enough of them. What's wanted are these men 
" 'stablished " in good works, these men that hold on. A 
man that does one thing is a terrible man. The man who 
tries a hundred things fails at everything. If it is the Sun- 
day school, if God calls me there, I will stand by my post. 
If God calls me to lead a cottage prayer-meeting or read 
the Bible, I must win success there — I must hold on ; and 
it won't be long before God will bring me success, for God 
has promised it : " You shall reap if you faint not." God 
will try you ; you will have some things to discourage you, 
but you must hold on. 

Next, please look at the seventeenth verse of the third 
chapter of Colossians : " Whatsoever you do in word or 
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks 
to God and the Father by Him." Don't work, as your 
highest motive, to advance the Centenary Methodist 
Church ; don't work for the Third Presbyterian Church, 
nor for the First Congregational Church. If a man goes 
to work to exclusively build up the Congregational, the 
Presbyterian, the Baptist, or the Episcopal Church ; to 
build up exclusively any of the denominations he is on 
the wrong path. It is not in the name of the church, but 
in the name of the Lord Jesus, that we are to do all things. 
If we do and suffer for Him, God will bless us. When we 



WORK. 503 

come to God and ask a blessing for Christ's sake, don't 
you see what a power we've secured ? For Christ's sake ! 
Jesus as our advocate! In Detroit, at an international 
convention of the Young Men's Christian Association 
Judge Olds was present as a delegate from Columbus. 
One evening he was telling about the mighty power that 
Christians summon to their aid in this petition "for 
" Christ's sake ! " " in Jesus' name ! " and he told a story 
that made a great impression on me. When the war came 
on, he said, his only son left for the army, and he became 
suddenly interested in soldiers. Every soldier that passed 
by brought his son to remembrance ; he could see his son 
in him. He went to work for soldiers. When a sick sol- 
dier came there to Columbus one day, so weak he couldn't 
walk, the Judge took him in a carriage, and got him into the 
Soldiers' Home. Soon he became President of the Soldiers' 
Home in Columbus, and used to go down every day and 
spend hours in looking after those soldiers, and seeing that 
they had every comfort. He spent on them a great deal 
of time and a great deal of money. One day he said to his 
wife, " I'm giving too much time to these soldiers. I've 
got to stop it. There's an important case coming on in 
court, and I've got to attend to my own business." He 
said he went down to the office that morning, resolved in 
future to let the soldiers alone. He went to his desk, and 
then to writing. Pretty soon the door opened, and he saw 
a soldier hobble slowly in. He started at sight of him. 
The man was fumbling at something in his breast, and 
pretty soon he got out an old soiled paper. The father saw 
it was his own son's writing. 

" Dear Father, — This young man belongs to my com- 
pany. He has lost his leg and his health in defence of his 
country, and he is going home to his mother to die. If he 
calls on you treat him kindly, 

" For Charlie's Sake." 



504 GREAT JOY. 

" For Charlie's sake." The moment he saw that, a pang 
went to his heart. He got up for a carriage, lifted the 
maimed soldier in, drove home, put him into Charlie's 
room, sent for the family physician, kept him in the family 
and treated him like his own son. When the young soldier 
got well enough to go to the train to go home to his mother, 
he took him to the railway station, put him in the nicest, 
most comfortable place in the carriage, and sent him on 
his way home to his mother. " I did it," said the old judge, 
" for Charlie's sake." Now, whatsoever you do, my friends, 
do it for the Lord Jesus' sake. Do and ask everything in 
His name, in the name of Him " who loved us and gave 
himself for us." 

And then again, lastly, be united. It is the greatest 
force of all to be of " one mind and one spirit." The boast 
of infidels has been, " Christianity has been all divided 
up." "Be," I beseech you, " of one mind and one spirit." 
If jealousy comes in among you, you cannot do great 
things. If one minister is used more than others., let us 
praise God for that ; let us thank Him that He has given 
divers gifts to men, all contributing to the glory of His 
name. This work, then, won't stop, but will go on. How 
many battles in the last war were lost just through jealousy 
in the officers ? When I was in the South, they told me 
that they lost many and many a battle because jealousy 
got in among the generals. Just so, many battles are lost to 
God's people. All must be willing to do anything that 
God's work may go on. When Grant's army lay in front of 
Richmond, after the battle of the Wilderness, when he was 
first repulsed, he called his four leading commanders one 
dark night, to consult with him. All advised him to 
retreat. The next morning early, an orderly came dashing 
to the four commanders, bringing word to advance in solid 
column without delay. That attack defeated the Southern 
column, and what did it was the steady, irresistible ad- 



WORK. ' 505 

vance in solid column. So let the advance be made in the 
army of Jesus. Be not hearers of the word any longer, but 
doers. Let every one do what he can to carry on this 
work ; gird on your armor for the fight. I am told that 
after Napoleon's great wars, medals were struck off with a 
scene of battle on one side, and on the other, the simple 
words, "I was there," and after Napoleon had died, and 
years had gone by, those old veterans would bring out 
their medals, and, talking about the battle, or the prowess 
of the great general, they would proudly tell how they 
were in the thickest of the fight — " I was there." Oh, my 
friends, rush forward to the thickest of the fight, and by- 
and-by it will be your boast, " I was there, I had a hand 
in that fight." And by-and-by — still keeping up the war- 
fare, even in your gray hairs and tottering age — shall 
some one say of you, " He was a true soldier of the cross, 
and fell from the walls of Zion with the trump of God in 
his hand, and a shout of victory on his lips." May that 
be the end of every child of God here, in this Tabernacle, 
in this city. May we die — not in the wilderness — may we 
die with the trump of Gocl in our hands, and with shouts 
of victory on our lips. 






- ": ; = , : 








PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 



Mr. Moody's First Public Prayer in the Chicago 
Tabernacle. — " Our Heavently Father, we thank Thee for 
bringing us back to Chicago. We thank Thee for the 
privilege of again meeting friends, with many of whom we- 
have labored these past twenty years. O God, the Holy 
Ghost, descend upon such as are still out of Thy fold, that 
yet they may come to the higher and better life ; that yet 
they may come to themselves and come to Christ. And to 
such as are Thy children, O God, do Thou draw very near, 
that they may be revived by Thy work in our midst. 
Forgive our lukewarmness, forgive our coldness of heart, 
forgive our backsliding, forgive our want of faith. Oh, 
help us on this morning to take away this dreadful stone 
of unbelief ; help us to roll it away, so that the dead may 
come forth. May we be prejudiced against Thy work no 
longer. May we no more view Thee with narrow, sect- 
arian vision, Thou God of all souls. Bless all Thy people 
of every name, and strengthen them to work to-day for 
Thee as they have never worked before. And those men 
of God who stand in the pulpit and proclaim a precious 
Saviour, may there be riches opened up to them abundantly, 
beyond what we can ask ; may they preach with an unction 
from on high, and with a God-the-Holy-Ghost power — not 
with intellectual power so much as with Holy Ghost power, 
and may they be endued everywhere and always with 
power from on high. And pour out Thy grace upon those 
in the Sabbath schools and pews as well as pulpit, and may 
the work of Christ be blessed to-day in all churches, and 



508 GREAT JOY. 

to-morrow at 12 o'clock, when we again come together to 
pray, do Thou, oh Christ, look down upon us, and may we 
know that a mighty work of Thine is now beginning. Oh, 
Son of God, hear our cry and save our souls ; and to Tlry 
name shall be the praise and the glory for ever. Amen. 

The Right Spirit. — When Abraham came into God's 
presence, it was on his face ; and in all the other instances 
where the patriarchs and prophets came to God they came 
to Him in the same way. David was on his face in the 
psalm. He'd been away from God. Here he was getting 
back again ; they had at first to get back to God, and the 
blessing would come. Then the right spirit would come into 
them. They must have just a clean heart, then the blessing 
was theirs. Had they a right spirit ? Had they got to where 
they could say, as the Psalmist did, that they had sinned 
against God and were waiting for forgiveness ? They 
must be able to teach transgressors God's way. How 
could they teach the wicked God's way ? They had to get 
the Holy Spirit, and then came the joy of God's salvation. 
If they would convert sinners, they must have this spirit. 
How should the world know God ? The world wouldn't 
read the Bible, but what did the apostles say of Christians? 
They were known and read of all men. This was the way 
the world read God in them, read Christ in them. If he 
knew his own heart, it was to have God's spirit. With it 
they could do all things ; without it their work was as 
sounding brass and as a tinkling cymbal. Over in the 
book of Nehemiah it was said that there was joy in the 
hearts and lives of God's children. There were too many 
long-faced Christians. They always seemed to him to be 
under the lash. They'd never got away from the law. They 
wanted more joy. They needed greater gladness in their 
lives. " Then will I teach transgressors the ^ay, and sin- 
ners shall be converted unto thee." " Then." This is 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 509 

when God had restored to them the joy of His salvation. 
They didn't place enough stress on the word " then." It 
was the turning point in their work. This was what 
Chicago w r anted. A few hundred live Christians that had this 
spirit could do a mighty work. The king could have given 
a good many sheep if God had wanted them, but He didn't. 
The Lord didn't want his money. What does He say ? 
Why, to obey was better than sacrifice. This is what 
was wanted — obedience. The human heart didn't want to 
obey. They must have a broken and a contrite heart. An 
incident of an Illinois minister whose labors had been un- 
blessed for a time was recited, and it was related how his 
heart had been broken by love through a little three-year- 
old daughter of his, and a revival in the church followed. 
So, here in Chigago, said Mr. Moody, befoVe we can have 
any great blessing, or any blessing at all, the hearts of the 
people have got to be broken, and then the blessings will 
come. 



Prayer. — We have for our subject this afternoon the 
wonderful prayer of the prophet Daniel. There is an im- 
pression abroad now that it has always been women and a 
few weak men who have prayed ; but you can scarcely find 
a bolder or a wiser man than Daniel. He was Prime Min- 
ister of that great nation for a long while. He was a wiser 
ruler and had more influence than any other man living on 
earth, and yet he was a man of prayer, and was not afraid 
to pray publicly. We are told that when he was taken 
down to Babylon the great king had a dream, and no man 
in his realm could interpret it. The king thought of his 
captive Daniel, and brought him and asked him what it 
meant. The young man, if he had not believed in God's 
power, might have turned away. But he didn't. He boldly 
told Nebuchadnezzar what God had written there. 



5 io GREAT JOY. 

But not only was Daniel a praying man, but he had 
faith that God would answer his prayers. Some people 
pray enough, but do not have faith that the Lord will hear 
them. They are lukewarm. There are a good many peo- 
ple of this sort here to-day. Daniel spoke to God with 
every confidence of being answered. Look at him when 
he went down into the den of lions, how he prayed.- Prayer 
was with everything he did. I think we would have a good 
deal better government in this country if our rulers prayed 
more. There would be a good many sneers at first, but the 
result would be a good government and a wise one. 

This man believed in prophecies, too, and I can fancy 
how the old man's eyes opened on turning away back to 
Jeremiah's writing, seventy years before, and reading: "I 
will punish them ; the young men shall die by the sword, 
their sons and their daughters shall die by famine," and 
then looking around him and seeing how all the words pro- 
nounced had been fulfilled. They disobeyed the Lord. 
When they were in Palestine, He said to His people that 
they must rest on the Sabbath day, but for 490 years they 
disobeyed God's command, and the Lord said, "If they 
won't do what I want them, I will make them." So he sent 
Nebuchadnezzar out after them, and he captured them, and 
held them for 70 years. If they would not give the Lord 
this, he said He would take it, and so if we do not give up 
what God wants us to He will not forgive us our sins, but 
keep us in bondage, and we will never hang our harps upon 
the willow, or sing the songs of Zion. 

I will just read : " We have sinned, and have committed 
iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled even 
by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments. 

" And now, O Lord our God, Thou hast brought Thy 
people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, 
and hast gotten Thee renown as at this day, we have sin- 
ned j we have done wickedly. 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 



5" 



" O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech 
Thee let Thy anger and Thy fury be turned away from the 
city of Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, because for our sins 
and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people 
are become a reproach to all that are about us. 

" Now, therefore, O, our God, hear the prayer of Thy 
servant and his supplications, and cause Thy face to shine 
upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake." 

He had not Christ to pray to like us. Daniel asks : "for 
the Lord's sake." He lived on the other side of Christ 
and could not, like us, say " for Christ's sake. Oh what a 
power we have in prayer in Jesus. And he goes on : 

"Oh Lord incline Thine ear and hear ; open Thine eyes 
and behold our desolation and the city which is called by 
Thy name, for we do not present our supplication before 
Thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. 

" O Lord, hear ; O Lord, forgive ; hearken and do ; de- 
fer not, for Thine own sake, O my God ; for Thy city and 
Thy people are called by Thy name. 

" And while I was speaking, and praying, and confess- 
ing my sin — 

Mark that — " And confessing my sin " — 
— "And the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my 
supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain 
of my God. 

" Yea, • while I was speaking in prayer, even the man 
Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, 
being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of 
the evening oblation. 

" And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, 
O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and 
understanding." 

Before he got off his knees Daniel's message was an- 
swered. I don't know how far heaven is off, but the angel 
Gabriel, the messenger of God, came to him while he was 



512 GREAT JOY. 

praying. Think of that. Here was a man who could not 
look at God for the sins of his people, who only prayed 
earnestly, and before he was through his prayer was an- 
swered, and Gabriel appeared. We know of only three 
visits that Gabriel ever made. This one, when he came to 
bring God's people to the Promised Land. Daniel was 
told that God was able to do everything, and the messenger 
not only told him that the children of Israel were going 
to the Promised Lancr, but he let Daniel into the secret of 
the Messiah's coming. The second time he came to Zech- 
arias. At first Zecharias doubted him, but he said : " I am 
he who sits in the presence of God." And then he came 
to the young maiden who bore the Christ, and that was the 
third visit. 

There are a great many young Christians in Chicago who 
have got into the way of the world, who are falling into the 
way of thinking and believing that God has given over an- 
swering prayer. God answers prayers to-day, as readily 
as he did of old. Infidels and scoffers and scientists may- 
tell us that the world must move along in a certain way, 
and a Divine answer to a prayer is absurd — the affairs of 
the world are and always have gone along in a regular way. 
There were infidels and scoffers, doubtless, in Babylon, 
who very likely laughed at this answer to the prayer of 
Daniel. 

But we have in this book a long list of promises to an- 
swer prayer, and let us unite in asking God's blessing on 
our meetings in Farwell Hall, and that the harvest of con- 
verts will be abundant. Ask it sincerely and earnestly, 
and you will see how quick the Lord will come and revive 
his work in this city. 

Heart- Searching. — I want to speak to you about 
the two verses — twenty-third and twenty-fourth — of the 
109th Psalm. " Search me, O God, and know my heart ; 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 513 

try me and know my thoughts : and see if there be 
any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way ever 
lasting." " Search me " — not my neighbor, nor my 
brother, nor my sister, but " search me." You who have 
been here during the week will have seen that I have 
been trying to instill into all the system of heart-search- 
ing ; that every one will go down to the bottom of his 
own heart. Try to get all to say : " O, Lord, know my 
heart." If God searches us through he will make quick 
work of Chicago. The great trouble is that people search 
themselves and do not ask God's aid. We want to ask 
God to come to us with His searching power, that our 
hearts may be bared. What is it that keeps away from us 
this searching of our hearts ? It is not the world, it is not 
the devil, for he has not the power. The only thing that 
keeps it from us is our own will, and the only thing that 
keeps the blessing of God back from Chicago is the people. 
A great many of us wonder how it is that our prayers have 
done no good — how it is that they have gone no higher 
than our heads. The truth would be discovered if we ex- 
amined, that we are not living in communion with God. 
Some of us think we are in communion with God, but it is 
a false thought. A false hope is worse than no hope at 
all, because in it a man is at rest and happy, and they can- 
not do any work. If we get that heart-searching truly we 
will know just where we stand. We must not look at what 
people think of us, but what we look like in God's sight. 
Therefore we must beware that we have only a false hope, 
and ask God to give us the true searching power. If we 
falsely believe that we have it, may God take it from us to- 
day, so that the work may be deep in Chicago. I have 
been praying all along that the work might be deeper here 
than anywhere else, but unless we get this searching power 
we don't do much good. 

I was out on my brother's farm a short time ago, and he 
33 



514 GREAT JOY. 

was plowing. He could not go very deep, owing to the 
roots in the ground. So it is in Chicago — the roots have 
got to be taken out before our work can go on. Let the 
prayer of David, " Teach me, O Lord, and know my 
heart," sink deep into us. Let us pray that this hour may 
be a heart-searching time, and if our hope is a false one, 
let us be willing to give it up. I have heard of a lady who 
would not attend our meetings when everything was plea- 
sant. If I was ill with an incurable disease, and called a 
doctor in, and he was to say: "Well, you are all right, 
you will soon be around again," although he knew I should 
die in thirty days, I shouldn't like him. But there are a 
great many people whom this would suit. Those people 
do not like to come here and listen to us telling them that 
their souls are sick and diseased, and prescribing just what 
will cure them. It is better to know the truth, that unless 
we search those hearts of ours and take out the disease 
there is no hope for us. So let us pray, and let it be an 
honest prayer from us. " O God, search our hearts." And 
if, when you go home, you feel troubled, don't say that you 
won't come back to the meetings, but ask God for more 
searching power, and then you will be ready to work. 

A doctor comes to a man who has broken his arm. 
The doctor feels around at first and he says, " Does that 
hurt you ? " touching the arm. The man answers, u No." 
The physician goes a little higher, and says, " Does that 
hurt you ? " " No, it don't." But by and by he touches the 
broken part, and the man cries out, "Oh, that hurts me ! " 
And so with God. He touches our broken spot, and we 
don't like it. 

Now, I have been thinking that there is a passage in 
Christ's sermon on the Mount that might point out our 
hindrances in Chicago — " Therefore, if thou bring thy gift 
to the altar, aud there rememberest that thy brother hast 
taught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 



5*5 



and go thy way ; first be reconciled to thy brother, and 
then come and offer thy gift." Now, I don't want you to 
think me personal, but I hope the Spirit of God may be 
present to-day to carry the truth to every one who has a 
quarrel going on. I believe the difficulty with us is the 
trouble in the church, the strife, the dissension going on 
among the brethren. If you have come to the altar with a 
quarrel between you and your brother, leave there thy gift 
and go out and be reconciled to him. If you have any 
malice or hatred against any one, your prayers will go for 
nothing — they will go no higher than your head. I believe 
this is the reason there is so much work lost among us — 
that you have something against some one, or some one 
has something against you. 

I knew of two brothers who had a quarrel — a regular 
Cain and Abel over again. The mother could not get 
them reconciled. She could not sleep. Her prayers went 
up night after night. One of the brothers saw how his 
mother felt, and was sorry for her. To please her he 
bought a very costly gift and took it to her. " I don't 
want any gift," she said. " I want you to be reconciled to 
your brother." If he had been reconciled first, and then 
brought the gift to his mother, it would have been all right. 
So it is with God. You take your gifts to the altar and 
keep in your heart hatred toward your brother. God don't 
want your gift until you are reconciled. 

Now think for a moment. Think of any one who be- 
lieves you are a hypocrite, anyone who says you are black- 
hearted, and who does not believe in anything you say in 
the meetings. Go and seek him out and be reconciled to 
him. That is the Gospel of the New Testament. " Oh ! " 
you say, "he will not believe me — he with whom I have a 
quarrel will not forgive me." Go and speak kindly to him, 
show him a forgiving spirit yourself, and be reconciled to 
God. Tell him that you want his forgiveness — that you do not 



5I 6 ""■ • GREAT JOY. 

want him to stumble in the way of his salvation over you. 
I do not think of anything that would lift Chicago more 
than the fact of everyone here taking this truth to their 
hearts. We would make quick work with it. 

There is a passage in the nth chapter of Mark, if I know 
it correctly. I hear it quoted very often in the prayers at the 
meetings: " Whatsoever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that 
ye shall receive them and ye shall have them." But they stop 
there and do not go on to the next verse, and they say: 
" God has not answered my prayer," when nothing comes 
from their supplication. They should read the next verse 
for the reason : " When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have 
aught against any, that your Father which is in heaven may 
forgive your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither 
will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." 
When they pray they want God to forgive them, but they 
are not willing to forgive others. Suppose I was a minister, 
and I had trouble with a brother, and some pretty hard 
words arose from the quarr*el. Well, I get up and go to a 
man and pray with him. I find he has a great deal of 
trouble, and I say to him: "Won't you just cast your 
troubles on the Lord?" He says : "Well, the fact is, I 
have had a quarrel with a man, and I feel bitter toward 
him." Then I say : " Go and forgive the man, and be 
reconciled toward him." But he asks me : " You had a 
quarrel with a man, did you go to him and forgive him ? " 
So we cannot go to men and preach Christ if we have hard 
feelings ourselves for anybody. If there is any worker 
here to-day who has a quarrel with his brother let him go 
at once and seek a reconciliation. 

Let us have a heart-searching here to-day. Let us ask 
God's and our own efforts, so that the car of salvation will 
rush along in the city. I tried to reconcile two men who 
stood very high in the community, who had a quarrel, and in 
their churches the wheels of the salvation car were clogged. 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. ^j 

I said to one of them : " Don't you know that God is not 
going to bless your church as long as this quarrel is going 
on ? Now I would like you to go that other man and say, 
'If you think I have done you an injustice, I want you to 
forgive me.'" "Well," said he, "I don't know that I can 
put it in that way. I fear that I am a little to blame, and 
I don't think he would receive me." The other man said 
the same thing, but I just reasoned with them and got them 
together, and they were soon down on their knees, asking 
God to bless the church. It was pride that kept these two 
men separate and hindered the work of their churches, and 
whenever that was reached and cut out everything went on 
smoothly. 

There are a great many things that have to be rooted 
out in Chicago before the work goes on prosperously. If 
there is any secret sin clustering around our hearth, we 
must draw that sin out before our work will be blessed by 
fruit. 

Getting Ready. — When I left the ministers yesterday 
I turned to the 30th chapter of Chronicles. I had thought 
I had read it pretty thoroughly already, but began to think 
about it and that circular (call for a Fast Day,) and I 
found that there was just the same scene enacted 2,500 
years ago in Jerusalem that was being gone over in 
Chicago to-day. Hezekiah had cleared the temple and 
invited all to come and worship. His father was one of 
the worst kings Jerusalem ever had. Not only did he set 
up images for worship in place of the Lord, but he closed 
the gates of the temple of Jerusalem to all religious 
services, burned the young children, and through his 
cruelty was a terror to all. And he was the descendant of 
David — Jerusalem's king. When he died, after reigning 
nearly sixteen years, his son Hezekiah took the throne, 
and the very first thing he did, in the very first year, in 



518 GREAT JOY. 

the very first rronth, was to open the temple. It took him 
eight days to clean it from all its filth and uncleanness, to 
thoroughly purge it. It would be a good thing to clean out 
a few of the churches of Chicago in the same way. Clean 
out the fairs, the shows, the Lyceums, the concerts that are 
held there. " Ah ! " some of you will say, " how are we 
going to pay our debts, set ourselves on our feet : it will be 
pretty hard to do this, if we put out all our fairs." If there 
is going to be a revival we must do this, and if there is a 
revival your debts will soon be paid. I think we have been 
working in the wrong way. We want more earnestness and 
fewer fairs. 

It is said in the thirty-sixth verse of the twenty-ninth 
chapter of Chronicles that " Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the 
people, that God had prepared the people, for the thing was 
done suddenly." 

God will work mightily when we get ready, but we must 
be completely ready. We are not all of one mind yet. 
Some say : " Why don't you open the inquiry room ? " We 
are not ready. Let us wait for a month if necessary ; but 
let us be ready. God can do more in a day than we can 
do in all time. And we must bear in mind that more at- 
tention must be given to getting ready. It goes on : 

"And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and 
wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they 
should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep 
the passover unto the Lord God of Israel. 

" For the King had taken counsel, and his princes, and 
all the congregation in Jerusalem, to keep the passover in 
the second month. 

" For they could not keep it at that time, because the 
priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently — " 

The ministers were not ready, neither were the people, 
for we read : " Neither had the people gathered themselves 
together to Jerusalem-" 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 



5*9 



So it is with us. We don't see eye to eye, toe to toe, 
heart to heart; we don't run together like drops of water. 
When we do the Lord will come suddenly. 

" And the thing pleased the King and all the congrega- 
tion. 

" So they established a decree to make proclamation 
throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that 
they should come to keep the passover unto the Lord God 
of Israel at Jerusalem : for they had not done it of a long 
time in such sort as it was written." 

They had not kept the Word of the Lord. It was 
commanded — given in the law of Moses — that they should 
keep the passover. It had been neglected for a long 
time, and so posts were sent out to tell the people to come 
into the temple now : 

" So the post went with the letters from the King and 
his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and accord- 
ing to the commandment of the King, saying: Ye children 
of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, 
and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you that 
are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria." 

When the faith of this King was seen by the Lord, He 
turned His judgment from His people, and the sons and 
daughters of those who had been held in Assyria by reason 
of their transgression were invited to the sanctuary? And I 
thought when I read this chapter how the judgment of God 
for the last sixteen years had been turned against Chicago. 
Do you remember about sixteen years ago how the spirit 
seemed to be stirred within us. How, when the war came, 
we gathered together and how earnestly we learned to pray. 
It seemed as if the war had clone more in teaching us to 
pray than anything else. But see how we have been afflicted 
since then. You know how after that, people — Sunday school 
teachers and all — got a few straws and dollars together, 
and then they became careless, went out riding on Sunday, 



5 20 GREAT JOY. 

and enjoyed the world after their fashion, and forgot God: 
how the fire came, swept away what they had, and then 
they said : " We have no time to think of Christ ; we must 
go in and make what we have lost." And then the panic 
came and made us more worldly, and so we see how we 
have been turned off the path. No city has had such an 
experience, and yet it seems to me no city has had such 
blessings. We had great advantages. Ten years ago you 
had your theatres shut on Sundays. There was a law 
against this thing then. Ten years ago the people used to go 
to church, but now they have their Sunday newspapers and 
their printed sermons and keep out of church. They read 
the polished sermons and criticise them. When people 
look for the qualification of a minister now, they say : 
" Oh, he's an orator. They don't look at his faith at alf — 
don't ask if he has the Spirit of God. What we want is 
earnestness and faith in the sermons, and then their power 
will sweep through the whole North-west. 

In the ninth verse we read : " For if ye turn again unto 
the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find com- 
passion before them that lead them captive, so that they 
shall come again into this land : for the Lord your God is 
gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from 
you, if ye return unto him." 

They were ground down by their captivity, but if they 
turned unto the Lord they would find compassion. There 
may be fathers and mothers in this audience who have 
sons, now spending their time in the billiard saloons and 
drinking halls, who have been swept into this captivity by 
the letting down of our principles and morals. Oh, my 
God ! show us the way to come down to days of peace and 
purity, and forgive our sins. 

The posts were sent out all over the country with the 
proclamation to the people : " So the posts passed from 
city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 



52i 



even unto Zebulon : but they laughed them to scorn, and 
mocked them." 

And the people who saw the proclamation laughed at 
it. Ah, how many men in the North-west, when they see 
our circular will take it up and say : " What ! a day of 
fasting and prayer ; that kind of thing has gone by," and 
will treat it with scorn. Why, my friends, we don't need 
to go back 2,500 years to find people who will scoff at a 
proclamation of this kind. But, thank God, they did not 
all mock. People came in crowds to Jerusalem to attend 
the services. Jerusalem was the center of that country; as 
Chicago is the centre of the Northwest. All through Judea 
the hand of God was seen, and they assembled through its 
influence at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened 
bread. 

" And they arose and took away the altars that were in 
Jerusalem and all the altars for incense took they away 
and cast them into the brook Kidron." 

By the king's faith they gathered there and smote the 
altars and broke the idols. Let us act like Hezekiah here ; 
let us lead the people by our faith into true worship. Let 
us be of one mind and spirit— eye to eye and heart to heart 
for God, and see how quick the blessing will come. 

Give God the Glory. — They had been at these noon 
meetings for four days now, and it didn't often happen 
that they had such an opportunity for self-examination. 
They hadn't often had such a heart-moving and such an 
overturning of themselves. It should trouble them, this 
question should, why God didn't use Christians more. 
They'd had this thought before them all the week. Now, 
what was the motive they had ? Was it God's glory or 
their own they were working for ? W 7 as it Christ's name or 
their own ? The longer he lived the more he was convinced 
that the greatest enemy he had was spiritual pride. The 



522 GREAT JOY. 

soul that wasn't renewed had enough of pride, God knew ; 
but when it came to the Christian, he had it too. It was 
spritual pride. He wanted all this rubbish in the heart 
cleared away. They'd got to live in the power of God, and 
feel the truth of the hymn " Oh, to be nothing ! " The 
subject he'd read, he said, was in the tenth chapter of first 
Corinthians, and at the thirty-first verse : " Do all to the 
glory of God." They'd got to get self out of the way. 
They'd got to feel just as the apostle did when he wrote 
this. Whatever they did had to be done to the glory of 
God. How quick God would come into their hearts when 
they got self out of the way.. In another place Paul says 
that Christians are not to give this glory to men. They 
had got to empty themselves of self, and come to Him. 
They weren't fountains,. they're only channels the streams 
flowed through ; they weren't light, but merely the pipes 
the gas came through. John the Baptist was only " a voice " 
in the wilderness. And when Elijah was under the juniper- 
tree he got to be jealous and wanted to die, and said he 
wasn't any better than his father. It was the same with 
Jonah. He couldn't do anything until he let God use 
him just as He wanted to. It wasn't the glory of God he 
was seeking. They had got to get out of self, then it 
would be easy enough for God to use them. It seems 
strange that twelve men had been with Jesus for three 
whole years and yet hadn't got out of self. But they 
hadn't. In the ninth chapter of Mark at the thirty-first 
verse we read that He told his disciples that he'd have to 
be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be killed, 
and then rise again, on the third day. They could not 
understand Him, and were afraid to ask Him. But a 
little further on, Mark says, when they got to Capernaum 
Jesus asked His disciples why they disputed on the way, 
and then,* when they were silent, He told them that 
they'd been talking about who'd be the greatest. Then 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 



5 2 3 



Jesus taught them humility. They were ashamed of 
themselves. This was why they did not speak when 
He asked them. He prayed God would make each one 
ashamed of himself. They might have an unholy am- 
bition. It was their own glory, not Christ's, they were 
looking after and thinking of. " Who should be the great- 
est? " He put a little child where they could see it in their 
midst. Jesus wanted to show them their sin and folly. 
John wasn't humble enough, and yet was the most loving. 
They might be jealous because they didn't belong to some 
clique or party. They shouldn't have any such feeling. 
Then again, in the tenth chapter of Mark, at the thirty- 
third verse, He had to reprove the same thing. He was 
now coming to the cross, Jesus was, and His heart was 
sorrowful, and He was on His way up to Jerusalem. James 
and John came to Him in the midst of all this, and after 
He had been talking about His suffering — how He'd be 
killed and cast out. These two disciples nearest to him 
wanted to sit, the one on His right hand, the other on His 
left in the kingdom. This is what comes in the churches 
when there are strifes among the brethren. And even at 
His death, in the twenty-second chapter of Luke, nine- 
teenth verse, when He was at the last supper, the disciples 
were again discussing who should be greatest. Here we 
had it in a Baptist minister, going across the way to see 
how a Methodist minister was getting on. He didn't 
" thank God " for the work ; until they were ready to do 
that they wouldn't be vessels fit for the Master's use. 
They hadn't got deep enough yet. They must be emptied 
of self. God must show them the sins that clustered around 
their hearts. Could they rejoice when God blessed some 
one else ? Then they had got down where God wanted 
them. If it was God's glory they were after, all will be 
willing to be nothing. 



5 24 GREATJOY. 

The Disciples' Prayer. — Mr. Moody read the Lord's 
Prayer and said each should ask himself the question, 
" Can I pray this prayer ? " This prayer has been 
called by a good many "the Lord's prayer," but it 
wasn't ; it was the disciples' prayer. The disciples had 
been with Jesus, and He was praying. And when 
He finished, they said to Him, "teach us, Lord, how 
to pray." They didn't ask him to teach them how to 
preach ; man knows how to do that ; but they wanted to 
know how to pray. They'd all soon know how to preach 
if they only knew how to pray. He believed he spoke the 
feelings of thousands of Christians when he said, they 
hadn't known what it was to pray. " Teach us " should 
be the prayer of every Christian heart. If the disciples 
nearest Jesus needed to be taught how to pray, how much 
more did Christians to-day, as lukewarm as the church is 
now, need this spirit and teaching. What they wanted 
was heartfelt, heart-searching prayer. He had never been 
more impressed with the lesson than in the warning when 
he was reading over the chapter before the meeting. In 
the twentieth chapter of Matthew, at the twentieth verse, 
it was said that the mother of James and John came to 
Jesus and asked Him that her two sons, Zebedee's children, 
might sit, the one on Christ's right hand, the other on His 
left, in His kingdom. And Jesus answered, " Ye know 
not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I 
shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I 
am baptized ? " They say unto Him, " We are able. And 
He saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and 
be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with ; but 
to-sit on My right hand and on My left, is not Mine to give, 
but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of 
My Father. And when the ten heard it they were moved 
with indignation against the two brethren." John was 
nearest Jesus, and yet, like the others, though he knew how 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS. 



5 2 5 



to preach, he did not know how to pray. These words 
were uttered by Jesus in the evening of his ministry. The 
mother of James and John came to Him with this prayer, 
but, because it was prompted by a desire to be great in 
His kingdom, the Holy Spirit didn't put into her heart, 
and Jesus didn't answer it. The ten disciples when they 
heard it were indignant, jealous. There would have been 
trouble if Christ hadn't been there. Jesus then went on to 
speak about humility in Mat. xx. 25, and said to his dis- 
ciples that whosoever would be chief among them, let him 
be the servant. " Even," said Jesus, " as the Son of Man 
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to 
give His life a ransom for many." In other words, Christ 
taught his disciples not to be ambitious. Probably the 
mother of James and John wanted her sons to be made 
prime minister or chief secretary, or to be appointed to 
some high office in Christ's kingdom, when it was estab- 
lished, as many thought it would be. Christians to-day 
ought to pray and ask to be taught how to pray. In the 
ninth chapter of Luke it is related that when Jesus stead- 
fastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, He sent on some of 
his disciples to a village of the Samaritans to make ready 
for him. The people wouldn't receive him because his 
face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when 
these same disciples saw it they wanted Jesus to send down 
fire from heaven and destroy the village. But Christ re- 
buked them, ani told them they didn't know of what 
manner of spirit they were, "for the Son of Man came not 
to destroy men's lives, but to save them." These disciples 
were closest to Christ, had been with Him all through His 
ministry, and yet, ev^n when it was about to close, they 
hadn't learned how to pray. The Lord's prayer to His 
Father was given in the seventeenth chapter of John, but what 
was commonly called the Lord's prayer was the disciples' 
prayer, the one Jesus taught them. There was no differ- 



526 GREAT JOY. 

ence between a disciple's prayer and a sinner's prayer. 
One spoke to God as " Our Father," the other as the great 
God who ruled this world and all the worlds. The eighteen 
hundred years since Jesus taught His disciples how to pray 
had rolled away, but it hadn't been changed, it hadn't been 
improved. " Thy will be done." The ungodly man 
couldn't say that. The sinner's stumbling-block is that he 
isn't willing to give up his will for God's. The ungodly 
man cannot forgive others, and so he can't ask God to 
forgive him. God's grace only can make man do this. 
Many men stumble over this prayer into perdition. Many 
say their prayers like the man who counts his beads — 
there's no soul in it. 

Unanimity. — At a meeting in Glasgow where a man 
said to him: "I have been at work in the inquiry-room 
lately, but the work got into me last night, and there is a 
good deal of difference." So among those ministers who 
have come up here, in whom the work has entered. We 
will hear from them, whereas with those who are in the 
work only — well, we may never hear of them again. He re- 
joiced at the spirit of unanimity which he noticed during 
this session of the convention. He declared that he had 
not seen a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or an Episcopalian — 
they all seemed to be children of God. Oh, those miserable 
sectarian walls ! May the great God knock them down. 



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